LB 3218 
.G4 F4 
Copy 1 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

4. * BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1921, No. 25 



A SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM 
FOR ATHENS, GEORGIA 



By 



ALICE BARROWS FERNANDEZ 

SPECIALIST IN INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS 

IN EDUCATION 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1921 



<Uv\V 



n 



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tfV6D 

JAN 101922 

DOCUMENT* hJ.V..ilON 









CONTENTS. 



Page.. 

Athens an educational center — 5 

Athens developing into an industrial city 6 

Significance of a school-building program for Athens 6 

Contemplated bond issue inadequate for needs of schools 7 

Present conditions in the public schools 7 

Schools badly congested — 439 more children than school seats 10 

No modern school facilities in the elementary schools 1] 

The high schools 11 

Work and play as necessary as study 12 

The city school must provide opportunity for the work and play which the 

home can no longer provide 14 

The balanced-load plan versus the peak load 14 

The work-study-play, or balanced-load, plan 15 

Principle of multiple use makes modern educational facilities financially prac- 
ticable 17 

Educational advantage of the plan— an enriched curriculum 18 

Flexibility of the program meets individual needs of children 20 

The school takes over the street time of the child 21 

Principles upon which the proposed building program has been worked out 22 

The importance of equipment 24 

Importance of fire-proof buildings „ 24 

Recommendations for a permanent building program for white schools 28 

Recommendations for a permanent building program for negro schools 35 

Athens has the wealth to carry out the permanent building program proposed. 40 
Recommendations for a building program planned on the basis of a bond issue 

of $323,000 ....... 40 

Athens behind other cities in school expenditures 53 

Summary 60 

Appendix I. — The work-etudy-play plan in some cities 63 

Appendix II. — Schedule showing capacity/ of complete school per class period, 

for school of 2,000 pupils.. 64 

Appendix III. — Description of type building of which a diagram is submitted. 68 
Appendix IV. — Enrollment in public schools, Athens, Ga., 1913-14 to 1919-20, 

inclusive 70 

Appendix V. — Taxable wealth of Athens, Ga., 1920 70 

Appendix VI. — Expenditures for all city departments, Athens, Ga., 1920 70 

3 



A SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GEORGIA. 



Athens was the pioneer in bringing higher education to, the youth 
of Georgia. Will it lead in reconstructing its public school plant so 
as to bring modern educational advantages to the children of the 
public schools ? 

This question states the real significance of a school building 
program for Athens at the present time. 1 

ATHENS AN EDUCATIONAL CENTER. 

When the visitor to Athens asks what is the chief industry of the 
city, the answer is "Education." And the answer is not far wrong, 
as yet. 

Athens did not start as an industrial center. Education, not 
industry, was the cause of the founding of the town. In 1801 a 
grant of 600 acres was given to the State by John Milledge for the 
purpose of establishing a a seat of learning" in Georgia. A site was 
chosen for the State University of Georgia, said to be one of the 
oldest State universities in the country; and the town grew up around 
the university. 

This fact has conditioned the character of the town in a number 
of interesting ways. In the first place, if the town had started as 
an industrial center, the first building would probably have been 
erected along the flats by the Oconee River, and then as the town 
grew the more well-to-do members of the community would have 
climbed to higher ground, leaving about the river the usual unsightly 
mixture of old insanitary dwellings jostled by encroaching factories. 
But the town started with the university, and it started on the 
heights. The municipal buildings, the post-office, the city hall, 
and the University of Georgia were all built on a high plateau. 
Later, the city spread out into four wards. The second ward, 
running through the city northwest and southeast, represents the 
original settlement. The first ward, where the factories follow the 
river, climbs up the east bank of the Oconee River; the fourth ward, 
now the congested part of the city, extends almost due west from the 
Oconee River; while the third ward, the newer residential section, 
spreads out to the south. 

Athens is different in spirit from the usual industrial town. Like 
its namesake, it is beautiful. It has the variety of landscape, the 



'At the request of the Board of Education of Athens, Ga., the Commissioner of Education detailed Alice 
Barrows Fernandez, specialist in the United States Bureau of Education, to make a survey of the public 
schools of Athens, Ga., with a view to working out a building program for the schools of the city. The 
survey was made in March, 1921. Mrs. Fernandez was assisted in working out the plans of buildings and 
building costs by Mr. William B. Ittner, consulting architect. 

5 



6 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

richness of coloring, and the stimulating air that make the Athenians 
of Georgia love their native city as the Athenians of old loved their 
city. Again, like its namesake, the city seems to realize the impor- 
tance of living, not merely the importance of accumulating things. 
It cares about education; it cares about enriching life. 

ATHENS DEVELOPING INTO AN INDUSTRIAL CITY. 

But the visitor to Athens can not be there long without realizing 
that a change is coming over the city, and that this spirit of mellow 
enjoyment of life, of tolerance, and of interest in ordered living and 
human progress which goes with, or should go with, the university 
spirit, is rather what remains of the first period of Athens's history. 
The real question is what the second period of its history is going to be. 

Athens is rapidly becoming an industrial city. 2 It is now the 
second largest inland cotton market in the State, and it is also the 
center of a large wholesale business for northeast Georgia. It already 
has some 30 manufacturing establishments, of which the largest are 
the 5 textile plants, employing about 720 people. The other manu- 
facturing plants are fertilizers, a compress plant, foundry and machine 
shop, woodworking shops, brick plant, bottling, bakeries, candy, 
laundry, oil factories. There are about 200 retail stores. It was 
impossible to secure the exact number of workers in the different 
plants, but it was estimated that in the 30 establishments enumerated 
there were about 1,200 people. 

This development of the industrial life of Athens necessarily shifts 
the emphasis in education, or rather it enlarges its scope. Athens 
is no longer a university town but a modern industrial city where the 
question of public education for the mass of children has come to 
be of as vital importance as the question of university education. 
The important question before the city is whether it is going to recog- 
nize these facts in time and reconstruct its school plant to meet the 
changed conditions. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF A SCHOOL-BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS. 

The real significance of a school building program for Athens at 
the present time is that it is a challenge to the city to prove whether 
or not the belief in education upon which the city was founded is 
virile enough to face the facts of modern life; whether it is scientific 
enough to recognize that changed social and industrial conditions 
demand drastic changes in public schools, and that, in order to 
preserve its leadership in education, the university education of 
which the city is justly proud must be founded upon a broad, modern, 
elementary school education. 

The educators of Athens have a clean-cut choice before them. 
They can either let the industrial development of the town grow and 

1 The total population in the whole city in 1920, exclusive of the new territory annexed, was 17,912, an 
Increase of 11.1 per cent in 10 years. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 7 

dominate the character of the city, leaving education, as too often 
happens, in a sort of secluded bypath, a privilege for the few rather 
than an opportunity for the many, or they can take the initiative 
now in helping to make the public schools of the city what the public 
school system in America ought to be — a children's university. The 
fine spirit of cooperation between the university and the public 
schools indicates that that choice has already been made. 

The fathers and mothers of Athens have the choice of letting then 
children remain in cramped quarters which will stunt their growth, 
spiritually, mentally, and physically, or they can demand that their 
children, the children of all the people, shall have as rich an educa- 
tion as the favored few who are able to survive and go on to a uni- 
versity. 

The business men of the city have the choice of letting the present 
plant continue, getting more and more decrepit, thus necessitating 
larger and larger expenditures for repairs and additions, or they can 
enter upon a statesmanlike policy to adopt a permanent building 
program which will give a modern up-to-date school plant to the 
city, carrying out as much of it as possible with the present bond 
issue and the remainder from year to year until the plan is completed. 

CONTEMPLATED BOND ISSUE INADEQUATE FOR NEEDS OF SCHOOLS. 

The contemplated bond issue of $323,000 is totally inadequate to 
meet the needs of the public schools of Athens. It is possible, how- 
ever, to begin to meet the needs with that amount. But even that 
can not be done economically and efficiently except on the basis of 
a permanent building program, of which the plans for the expendi- 
ture of the $323,000 bond issue will be only a part. 

This report, then, will describe what the present conditions are in 
the schools; outline a permanent building program which will take 
care of congestion and provide for growth over a period of at least 
10 years; outline in detail what part of this program can be carried 
out with the $323,000 bond issue; and show that it is financially 
possible for Athens to carry out the permanent building program in 
the near future. 

PRESENT CONDITIONS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The condition of the public school buildings in Athens is deplorable. 

Athens is to be congratulated upon the fine, progressive spirit of 
its superintendent, board of education, and teaching force. They 
are doing their best to give progressive education to the children, but 
they are trying to do it in the face of almost insuperable obstacles in 
the way of buildings and equipment. It is impossible to make bricks 
without straw. It is equally impossible to carry out the precepts of 
modern education to "give children the opportunity for self expres- 
sion," to teach them to "learn by doing," etc., when there is nothing 
with which to do or make things, nothing but school seats, and not 
a sufficient number of them. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 






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10 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOE ATHENS, GA. 



SCHOOLS BADLY CONGESTED 439 MORE CHILDREN THAN SCHOOL 

SEATS. 

The schools are badly congested. There are five white elementary 
schools and one white high school. There are three Negro elementary 
schools and one combination elementary and high school. In the 
white elementary schools there are 1,614 children and 1,480 school 
seats, 134 more children than there are seats. In the Negro schools 
there are 1,065 children and 760 school seats, 305 more children than 
there are school seats. 3 In other words, 16.4 per cent of all the 
elementary school children were without school seats in 1920. They 
went to school and somehow seats were found for them. But it 
means that there were too many children in a room; that some 
children attended school only in the morning and some only in the 
afternoon; that they had to sit in overcrowded rooms with bad air, 
and subject to all the evils of overcrowding; and that in some cases 
children were studying in the corridors with screens used in the 
sorry attempt to convert a corridor into a classroom. 

Table 2. — Number of teachers per school in 1919-20. 





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18 


Negro: High and Industrial . 
Grand total 


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13 


10 


95 



















3 See Table 1, showing original capacity of the public schools of Athens, Ga.; net enrollment 1910-11 
and 1919-20; per cent of increase in enrollment 1910-1920; number of regular classrooms available; total 
classrooms required; excess of rooms required over those available; number of special activities. 



SCHOOL, BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 11 

And the congestion is going to be worse as time goes on. The 
enrollment in all the schools increased from 2,202 in 1910 to 3,137 in 
1920, an increase of 42.4 per cent in 10 years. Yet there has been no 
new elemental school building for 12 years. This means that a 
building program must not only eliminate the congestion which has 
developed in the last 10 years, but also provide for a growth of 42 per 
cent in the next 10 years. 

NO MODERN SCHOOL FACILITIES IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 

Classroom congestion is sufficiently undesirable, but when, in addi- 
tion, there is no opportunity for healthful work and play in shops and 
playrooms and auditoriums and laboratories, the situation becomes a 
menace to the health and morals and intellectual growth of the 
children. Yet there are almost no special facilities in the elementary 
schools of Athens. 4 There is not a single auditorium, and there are 
only two special activity rooms in all the white elementary schools — 
one cooking room in the Charles Street School and one in the College 
Avenue School. There is a cooking room in Baxter School, but it is 
nothing but a classroom with some meager cooking equipment. In 
Nantahala School a closet is used as a cooking room, and in Oconee 
part of a hall has been partitioned off in the attempt to develop this 
work. These attempts show the desire of the principals and teachers 
to give some special work to the children, but the space and the equip- 
ment are pathetically inadequate. 

There are no science rooms hi any of the elementary schools, no 
shops, no drawing rooms, no music rooms, no libraries, no gymna- 
siums. There are only two principals' offices in all of the eight ele- 
mentary schools, and there are no teachers' rest rooms in any of the 
schools. 

THE HIGH SCHOOLS. 

The facts as given on the chart as to the Athens High School are 
misleading. 5 As a matter of fact, the building is entirely unsuited to 
school purposes, and only the fine spirit of the principal and teachers 
makes it possible to carry on the work effectively. The building was 
originally a courthouse. It is not fireproof. It is badly constructed. 
The ceilings are so high that it is expensive to heat, and the windows 
are so narrow that the lighting is very bad. But there are only 345 
children in the high school, and there are 1,614 children in the ele- 
mentary schools. And the elementary school children do not have 
even the special facilities that exist in the high school. Therefore it 
is obvious that the needs of the elementary school children should be 
taken care of first. 

1 See Table 1. 



12 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

The High and Industrial School for Negroes is utterly inadequate 
for the number of pupils enrolled and for the type of work that is being 
carried on there. As a matter of fact, this school is carrying a triple 
load, for it includes an elementary school, a high school, and a night 
trade school. Yet the building is only a frame structure of the 
8-classroom type, with a cottage for the domestic-science work. 
When the fact is considered that there is being taught in this school at 
present the regular academic work, together with science, shopwork, 
and domestic science, and that, in addition, courses in carpentry, 
blacksmithing, plastering, brick masonr}^ automechanics, and nurse 
training are being given in the trade school, and that there is such a 
demand for this work that garages and shops in the city have to be 
rented to carry on the work in the evening, it is clear that the type 
of work being done in this school has far outgrown the building and 
equipment. 

To sum up, in a school system of 3,137 children, there is only 1 
auditorium, 1 gymnasium, 3 manual training shops, 2 commercial 
rooms, 4 cooking rooms, 3 sewing rooms, and 3 science rooms. And 
all of these special facilities, with the exception of 2 cooking rooms, 
are in the 2 high schools. 

WORK AND PLAY AS NECESSARY AS STUDY. 

The seriousness of this lack of modern educational facilities can 
only be understood when it is realized that work and play are as 
essential in education as opportunity for study in classrooms. No 
child was ever educated by study alone. All children have always 
been educated by three things — work and study and play. If they 
are deprived of any one of these, their education is incomplete. But 
children in modern cities are being deprived of two of these essential 
elements in their education, i. e., work and play. 

It is difficult for adults who have been brought up in the country, 
in a simpler environment, to realize what a revolution has taken place 
in the conditions surrounding children's lives. It is difficult for them 
to realize that the days of the little red schoolhouse have gone for- 
ever. Everyone knows, when he stops to think about it, that school 
does not necessarily spell education. A child's "education" begins 
each day from the moment he gets up in the morning until he goes to 
bed at night. Some of this education he gets in school, some of it he 
gets outside of school. But the kind of education which the child of 
to-day gets outside of school is very different from what he received 
50 years ago outside of school, while the education which he receives 
in school has remained much the same. Fifty years ago he began the 
day by doing chores about the farm, taking care of the animals, 
mending a piece of harness or part of a wagon. Then he went to 
school and got the "book learning" that he could not get at home, 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 13 

and after school he played in the fields or stopped in at some black- 
smith shop or carpenter shop and watched a friend at work and 
learned to handle tools himself. All this work on the farm and in the 
small shops was education, and the schoolhouse simply supplemented 
it. Furthermore, it was this first-hand knowledge of life and this 
opportunity to experiment, to learn to handle tools, to invent new 
ways of doing tilings, which developed the independence and initiative, 
the mechanical knack and resourcefulness, that have given this nation 
much of its inventive genius. 

But times have changed. At the present time 50 per cent of the 
population of the country live in cities, and the city is an extremely 
poor place in which to rear children, chiefly because it deprives them 
of the opportunity for healthful work and play. There is little work 
of educational value to be done about a city home. On the contrary, 
the whole tendency in the city is to have as much work as possible 
done outside the home. There is no harvesting and planting to be 
done, few, if any, animals to be taken care of; and it is a rare city 
home that has a workshop or tools or laboratory in which children 
may experiment. 

But the city not only fails to educate children in the right direction; 
it educates them in the wrong direction. With the majority of 
children the street becomes their only playground, and the street is a 
most effective teacher in all the vicious and sordid side of a city's life. 
There is probably no greater menace to the health of the children of 
this country— physical, mental, and moral — than our failure to realize 
the vital necessity of play for children. The average adult apparently 
looks upon play as recreation merely, something to indulge in after 
the serious business of life is over for the day, something that one is a 
little ashamed to give much time to, until perhaps ill. health forces 
one to give time to it. Possibly because of the stress and speed at 
which life is lived to-day, the fact has been forgotten that play is not 
merety recreation, not a luxury, but a necessity for children if they 
are to grow in strength and health and mental keenness. 

Children in the public schools all over the country get practically 
no time for play until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Ten minutes' 
recess in the morning and a few minutes in the afternoon is not play, 
it is literally a "recess" from sitting in school seats. And Athens is 
like every other city in this respect. But Athens, at least, has the 
authority and inspiration of her namesake for a better custom. To 
the Greeks, play was of the first importance in their scheme of educa- 
tion. The Athenians, whose achievements in art, literature, educa- 
tion, and the art of living have never been surpassed, realized that 
play was the foundation of physical health and intellectual power. 
Yet in the modern Athens of Georgia there is no public playground, 
and there is practically no opportunity for children to play during 



14 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

school hours. It were well if the modern Athenians took to heart the 
words of Socrates in regard to the place of play in education, when he 
says in The Republic: 6 

Can there be anything better for a State than that it should contain the best possible 
men and women'? 

There can not. 

And this result will be brought about by music and gymnastics employed as we 
described? 

Undoubtedly. 

THE CITY SCHOOL MUST PROVIDE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE WORK AND 
PLAY WHICH THE HOME CAN NO LONGER PROVIDE. 

Since the city is doubtless here to stay, it is imperative that the 
school return to children the opportunity for the work and play 
which the home no longer supplies, and which is absolutely essential 
for the healthy growth of children. For these reasons it has come 
to be recognized that every modern school must have not only 
classrooms but also an auditorium, gymnasium, shops, laboratories, 
cooking rooms, sewing rooms, drawing and music rooms, where 
children may be kept wholesomely busy all day long. 

What Athens needs is a building program which will not only 
eliminate congestion and give adequate classroom facilities, but which 
will also provide the special facilities for work and play. 

But how is Athens to develop a building program which will not- 
only furnish sufficient classrooms but also provide the other modern 
educational facilities, and do it within the financial limits of the 
city ? 

THE BALANCED LOAD PLAN VERSUS THE PEAK LOAD. 

There are two chief methods of accomplishing this. One is by 
the traditional type of school organization, or the peak-load type; 
and the other is the work-study-play plan, or balanced-load type. 

The traditional type of school organization attempts to solve the 
situation by the usual custom of providing a seat in a classroom for 
every pupil, which that pupil has for his exclusive use. All children 
are expected to be in school seats at the same time, and if provision 
is made for such special facilities as auditoriums, gymnasiums, labora- 
tories, and workshops, they have to be erected in addition to a class- 
room for every class, and when the pupils go to the special rooms 
the classrooms are vacant. This means that the addition of these 
special facilities which are essential in a modern school plant add, 
under the traditional plan, fully 60 per cent to the cubical content of 
the building. 

This is what is commonly known in business as the "peak-load 
type" of organization because the load is not distributed, but, on 

6 The Republic of Plato, Book V. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PKOGEAM FOE ATHENS, GA. 15 

the contrary, tends to concentrate at any moment in one part of 
the building, e. g., the classrooms, and when the children leave the 
classrooms to go into the special facilities the load is transferred, 
leaving the classrooms vacant. Obviously, if Athens has to supply 
not only these special modern educational facilities, but a school 
seat for every child, the expense will be prohibitive. The question 
for Athens, then, is how the school system can be rehabilitated to 
furnish larger educational opportunities and at the same time effect 
the economies which will bring the building program within the 
financial resources of the city ? 

It is evident that the solution of the problem must be found in the 
increased use of school accommodations and more skillful school 
planning. Both are possible by skillful organization and adminis- 
tration. Fortunately, there is a method of school organization 
which has demonstrated its ability to effect these results, namely, the 
work-study-play plan, or balanced-load type. 

This plan developed hi an attempt to solve the peculiar school prob- 
lems created by the modern city, and it is now in operation in the pub- 
lic schools in some 30 or 40 cities in the country. 7 It grew out of a 
recognition of the fact that, as is the case in Athens, the growth of 
city conditions makes the educational problem far more difficult 
than formerly; in fact, has created a new school problem. The plan 
represents an attempt to make it practicable, both administratively 
and financially, for school administrators to provide not only class- 
room accommodations, but also such modern educational facilities as 
gymnasiums, auditoriums, shops, and laboratories, where children 
may be kept wholesomely occupied in study and work and play. 

THE WORK-STUDY-PLAY, OR BALANCED-LOAD, PLAN. 

Under the work-study-plan the load is balanced so that half the 
children are in classrooms while the other half are at work and play. 
For example, a school is divided into two parts, each having the same 
number of classes and each containing all the eight or nine grades. 
The first part, which we will call the "A school," comes to school in 
the morning, say, at 8.30, and goes to classrooms for academic work. 
While this school is in the classrooms it obviously can not use any of 
the special facilities, therefore the other school — B school — goes to 
the special activities, one-third to the auditorium, one- third to the 
playground, and one-third is divided among such activities as the 
shops, laboratories, drawing and music studios. At the end of one 
or two periods — that is, when the first group of children has remained, 

7 For example, Detroit, Mich., has 16 public schools on the work-study-play plan, and has just adopted 
a program for putting all the schools in the city on the plan. Pittsburgh, Pa., has 6 schools on the plan; 
Tassaic, N. J., has 2; Newark, N. J., has 9; Troy, N. Y., has 1; and Newcastle, Pa., has 4. Winetka, 111., 
Kalamazoo, Mich., Sewickley, Pa., and Swarthmore, Pa., are running all their schools on (lie plan. For 
information regarding attitude of school superintendents in these cities toward the plan, see Appendix I. 



16 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



according to the judgment of the school authorities, in school seats 
as long as is good for them at one time — the A school goes to the 
playground, auditorium, and other special facilities, while the B 
school goes to the classrooms. Chart I shows how the load is 
halanced so that half the children are in classrooms while the other 
half are working and playing. 8 



S&JOOL ACTIVIT2KE. 



r n r i o » b . 

-4 * f- 



J. 30 



CLA33 ROOK 

ACTIVITI1I8. 



SPECIAL ACTIVITIES: 
LABORATORIES 
SHOPS 
STUDIOS 
LIBRARY 
OYMHASIUM 
AUDITORIUM 
FUY SPACE 



_i- J 



LUVCHEOB. 



L_ a — .J 



va* 



A ■» * B 

A- A 6CH00L: TIOSE PUPILS UPEND IHB PIBSI TTO PERIODS IS CLASS J100MS. THE OTXT PERIOD IK SPECIAL ACTIVITIE 

:>II FOURTH PERIOD AT LUBCHEOS, ETC. 
B- £ CC100L; TJEES PUPILS ALTERBATB TITH THOSE ID THE £ SCHOOL, EFETDIBC THE FIRST T»0 PERIODS III SPECIAL ACTIVITIES. 

THE THIRD AND FOURTH IS CLASS ROOM. THE FI?TH AT LUBCHB01I ETC. • - 



Chart I. — Balanced load-plan of school organization by which half the school is in classrooms while the 

other half is at work and play. 



The following is one type of program that may be used. In this 
program each school (A and B) is divided into three divisions: 
Division 1, upper grades; division 2, intermediate grades; division 3, 
primary grades. 9 



The "A School. 



School 
hours. 



8. 30- 9. 20 

9. 20-10. 10 
10.10-11.00 
11.00-12.00 
12.00- 1.00 

1.00- 1.50 

1. 50- 2. 40 

2. 40- 3. 30 



Regular activities. 



Academic instruction. 



Arithmetic— Divisions 1, 2, 3. 
Language— Divisions 1, 2, 3... 



(Entire "A School" at luncheon.) 

Reading — Divisions 1, 2, 3 

History and geography — Divisions 1, 2, 3. 



Special activities. 



Auditorium. 



Division 1. 



Division 3. 
Division 2. 



s See Chart I. 

s For other types of programs see Appendix II. 



Play and physi- 
cal training. 



Division 3. 



Division 2. 
Division 3. 



Cooking, shop, 
science, etc. 



Division 2. 



Division 1. 
Do. 



School 
hours. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 
The "B School." 



17 




Regular activities. 



academic instruction. 



Special activities. 



Auditorium. 



Play and physi- 
cal training. 



Division 2 : Division 3. 

Divisions i Division 2. 



Arithmetic— Divisions 1, 2, 3 

Language — Divisions 1, 2, 3 

(Entire ''B School" at luncheon.) 



Reading — Divisions 1, 2, 3 

History and geography— Divisions 1. 2, 3. 



Division 1 i Divisions. 



Cooking, shop, 
science, etc. 



Division 1. 
Do. 



Division 2. 



PRINCIPLE OF MULTIPLE USE MAKES MODERN EDUCATIONAL FACILI- 
TIES FINANCIALLY PRACTICABLE. 

In other words, the work-stud}--play plan applies to the public 
school the principle on which all other public service institutions 
attempt to run, i. e., the principle of multiple use of facilities. The 
whole tendency in modern public utilities is to eliminate the peak 
load by using all facilities all the time; and the utility becomes more 
efficient and accommodates a larger number of people at less cost to 
the extent to which it balances its load. For example, it is evident 
that our transportation system is made possible because all people 
do not have to ride at exactly the same time. Public parks can be 
maintained by the city because they are not reserved for the exclu- 
sive use of any individual or group; the larger the city, and therefore 
the larger the number of people supporting -them, the more extensive 
and beautiful the parks can be made. Hotels can accommodate 
thousands of people because they are not run on the principle of 
reserving each room for the exclusive use of a single individual dur- 
ing the entire year. 

On the contrary, our public-school system up to the present time 
has been run on the principle of reserving a school seat for the ex- 
clusive use of one child during the entire year. All children have to 
be in school seats from 9 a. m. to 12 and from 1 to 3, and at 3 o'clock 
all of them are dismissed and turned out to play. The result is that 
there are never enough seats for all the children to study in, nor 
enough playgrounds for them to play in; and yet large sums of 
money are invested in these facilities, which the children can have 
the use of for only a fraction of the day. For example, thousands of 
dollars are invested in school auditoriums, and yet the average 
school auditorium is used regularly only 15 minutes a day. Thou- 
sands of dollars are invested in playgrounds, and yet these playgrounds 
arc empty of children all day until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. In 
fact, if a child is found on the playground before 3 o'clock he is 
63043°— 2] >> 



18 SCHOOL BUILDING PBOGBAM FOB ATHENS, GA. 

driven off because he is playing truant. Obviously, the playgrounds 
exist for the use of the children, and yet children have the opportunity 
to use them only a few hours a day, because they must be in school 
seats from 9 to 12 and 1 to 3. Thousands of dollars are invested in 
school shops and science laboratories, and yet practically no child in 
the elementary schools has the opportunity to enter them until the 
seventh grade, and then for only a few minutes a week. Half the 
children in the country leave school before they reach the seventh 
grade. 

There would, after all, seem to be no good reason why the principle 
of other public service institutions, i. e., multiple use of facilities 
all the time, should not apply to the school, nor any reason why all 
children should be in classrooms at the same time, nor why the special 
facilities should be used only a fraction of the day, provided, of course, 
that the children receive during the day the required amount of 
academic work. In fact, it is difficult to see how the problem of 
providing enough classrooms or playgrounds or auditoriums for the 
mass of children is ever to be met if all children have to be in class- 
rooms at the same time and if all children have to play at once. 
Moreover, there seems to be no good reason from an educational 
standpoint why children should all have to do the same thing at the 
same time. 

Fortunately, if the principle of multiple use is applied to public 
school facilities it is financially possible to provide not only adequate 
classroom accommodations, but also auditoriums, gymnasiums, 
laboratories, and shops for the mass of children. In fact, accommo- 
dations may be provided in all facilities, if they are in use constantly 
by alternating groups, at less cost than regular classrooms may be 
provided on the basis of a reserved seat for every child. For exam- 
ple, in a 50-class school, under the traditional plan, 50 classrooms are 
needed in addition to all other special facilities. Under the work- 
study-piay plan only 25 classrooms are needed. Therefore, under 
this plan the cost of 25 additional classrooms is eliminated. The 
average cost of a classroom at the present time is $12,000. Since 
only half the usual number of classrooms is required under the 
work-study-play plan, i. e., 25 classrooms in a 50-class school, the 
cost of the remainder is released for all the other special facilities. 
Chart II shows the waste in cubic feet, in cost, and in capacity in a 
building run on the traditional as compared with the same building 
organized on the work-study-play plan. 

EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGE OF THE PLAN AN ENRICHED CURRICULUM. 

The important point about the balanced-load plan, however, is 
not its economy, but the fact that it makes possible an enriched 
education for children. Under this plan the children not only have 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



19 



A . TRADITIONAL PLAN OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 
I. Utilijation of site 



Use 



number ofsouare ft. 
per pupil . 

Distribution of pupils 
Hours per day. 



Out door 
p/ay ground. 



No pupils . 



Building 



2,000 




Use 



Cubic capacity. 
Percent of building. 



Distribution of pupils 
Hours in use. 



31. Uf-ilijtftioii of building . 
- 1,800,000 cubic feet - cos~t & 750,000 



?> Halls. Gym 



Stairs. 
Toilets. 



272,000 



nasi- 
ums . 



183,000 210,000 



No 
pupib. 



Audi- 
■hori- 

U.-71S . 



No 
pupils. 



14 special 
rooms . 



350,000 



4oo,Qoocu.fi. \ 



NO 
pupils . 




B. WORK-STUDY- PLAY PLAN - NO WASTE! 







I Utilisation of building. 

-2,400,000 CUbiC feet - COSt -#600,000. 1> 


Use. 


6 


Halls . 
Stairs. 
Toilets 


Gym- 
nasi- 
ums. 


Audi- 
tori- 
ums. 


I4special 
rooms . 


zs class- 
rooms . 


Cubic feet 


1 


196,000 


18Z,<,J0 


210,000 


330,000 


392,000 


Percent of building- 


<6 


14.0 


13.0 


1S.0 


S5.0 


26 -O 


Distribution of pupils. 






00 


280 


480 


1,000 


hours in use. 




■ 


6 


6 


B 


s 





IE. Utilisation of site. 


Use 


Out door 
play ground '. 


Bui/ding 


number of square ft. 


too X 300 


2SOX.175 


per pupil. 


zoo 


Distribution of pupils. 


| ISO 


L840 1 








Hours per day. 


6 


6 



Chart II. — Showing the waste of building space under the traditional plan of school organization as 
compared with the utilization of all space all the time under the work-sludy-play plan, or balanced load plau. 

Total number of pupils under cither plan, 2,000. 

Under the work-study-play plan, 1,000 pupils are in classrooms while !,000 pupils arc in special facilities. 

Under the traditional p)an. all pupils are in classrooms at the same time, and when they go to the special 
facilities, the classrooms lie idle. For example, if any of the 2,000 pupils in classrooms go to the audiCorium, 
the classrooms of those pupils remain vacant. What good is a vacant classroom to a child? 

What good is an empty playground or auditorium or shop or laboratory to a child? 



20 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

the same amount of time for reading, writing, arithmetic, geography f 
and history as formerly, 210 minutes, but also 50 minutes of play 
every day, 50 minutes of auditorium a day, and 50 minutes of shop- 
work every day in the week for a third of the year; science every day 
for a third of a year; and drawing and music every day for a third 
of a year. 10 At present, children get in most schools a 10-minute 
recess period for play, a few minutes for opening exercises in the 
auditorium, and little or no time for special activities. 



•Voric-Study-Pl&y 
rlan. 

Traditional 
Plan. 


1 


Academic wor'K. 
210 • 


fcpecial world Auditorium 1 
f 60' 1 50' 1 


Play 
50- 


1 


| 




1 1 1 




1 


! 


Academic work. 

210 • 


1 Special waiA'idJ 8 £ B 1 
50. 115'lggfcrl 






1 




INK.! 1 1 









Chart III. — Daily allotments of time for academic work, special work, auditorium, and play, under the 
traditional plan and under (he work-study-play plan of school organization. 

EXPLANATION OF CHART HI. 
Academic Work: 

In the traditional school, 210 minutes are given to reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history 

every day. 
In the w or):- study-play school, 210 minutes are given to reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and his- 
tory every day. 
Play: 

In the traditional school. 25 minutes are given every day to recess, physical training, physiology, and 

hygiene. ' 
In the work-study-play school, 50 miuutes a day every day are given to play. 
Special Activities: 

In the traditional school 50 minutes are divided between 4 or 5 special subjects — drawing, music, shop, 

sewing, etc. — 2 periods a week to some special subjects, and a few minutes a day to others. 
In the work-study-play school, the year may be divided in 3 parts, and each child receives 50 minutes of 
science every day for a third of the year; 50 minutes of shopwork every day for a third of the year: 
and 50 minutes of music and drawing every day lor a third of the year. Or these special subjects 
can be alternated by days, weeks, or months. 

FLEXIBILITY OF THE PROGRAM MEETS INDIVIDUAL NEEDS OF CHILDREN. 

A program based upon the multiple use of facilities also makes it 
possible to have a flexible program. After all, schools were created 
for children and not children for the schools, and it should be possible 
to adapt the program to meet the needs of individual children instead 
of making children conform to the program, as is too often the case. 
A study of the different types of work-study-play schools in different 
parts of the country shows that it is possible to adapt the program to 
the needs of different types of children and different types of com- 
munities. 

10 See Chart III showing allotment of time for academic work, play, auditorium, and special work. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 21 

For example, a child who is backward in a special subject, such as 
arithmetic, and is being held back in a grade because he can not 
master that subject, and is growing discouraged because he has to 
repeat the whole year's work, can double up in arithmetic for a 
number of weeks by omitting the auditorium period until he has 
made up the work and is ready to go on with his grade in that sub- 
ject. In the meantime he has not been held back in other subjects, 
but has progressed as rapidly in them as he is able to. Or if a child 
has a particular talent in some subject, he can, under this program, 
double his time in that subject by omitting his auditorium period a 
number of times a week and yet not lose any time from his regular 
work. 

Again, it is possible to adjust the time of beginning or leaving 
school to meet the desires of parents. For example, it is possible to 
arrange to have the school begin at 8.30, 8.45, or 9 a. m., or any 
other hour desired. Or if the school begins at 8.30 and certain 
parents object to having their children leave for school so early, it is 
possible to put these children in the "B School," which begins the 
day with special activities; in this case the children can omit the play 
period or auditorium from 8.30 to 9.20 and arrive at school at 9.20. 
Or, again, many parents prefer to have their children take special 
music lessons after school. It often happens that home work or 
staying after school interferes with these lessons. Under the work- 
study-play plan it is possible to put such children in the "A School" 
and let them omit the play period or the auditorium in the afternoon 
from 2.40 to 3.30 p. m. u There is, of course, no reason why children 
should not be given credit for these out-of-school activities if so 
desired. As for the special facilities in school, each community and 
each section of the city can have the special facilities which the 
school authorities and the parents desire. 

THE SCHOOL TAEES OVER THE STREET TIME OF THE CHILD. 

As has been pointed out, one of the most undesirable elements in 
the life of city children is the street life in which they have hitherto 
spent so large a part of their time. The average city school is in 
session about 180 days in the year. Obviously, because of conditions 
of modern city life, it is necessary that the school take over some of 
the time now spent by the child on the city streets, especially during 
the school year. At present if 10 -hours of the 24 are allowed for 
sleep and 6 for meals and home duties, there still remain 8 hours to 

11 The school day in Athens— 9 a. m. to 2 p. m.— is altogether too short, for it leaves the children on the 
streets for practically half of every day. It is questionable whether it would be desirable to lengthen the 
day if it meant keeping children in school seats any longer, but in a work-study-play school the additional 
hours are spent in playgrounds, shops, laboratories, and auditoriums, which means that wholesome activ- 
ity in play and in work is substituted for desultory loafing upon the city streets. 



22 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

be accounted for. Even if the children were in school 5 hours every- 
day, there would still be 3 hours left, and as is well known these 
hours are spent on the city streets, and not to the child's advantage. 
At least one or two of these should be taken over by the school, and 
wholesome activity in work and play provided. 

The work-study-play plan does this by lengthening the school day 
an hour or two, as each community may desire, and by offering to 
the children the wholesome activity in shops and laboratories and on 
the playgrounds, which is so essential for them. It should be borne 
in mind, however, that this lengthening of the school day does not 
necessarily lengthen the number of teaching hours of any teacher. It 
is necessary that she be at the school 6 hours, but she need not teacli 
more than 5 hours. 

PRINCIPLES UPON WHICH THE PROPOSED BUILDING PROGRAM HAS 

BEEN WORKED OUT. 

In planning the school building program for Athens the following 
aims "have been kept in view: 

First, to relieve existing congestion, and provide for growth for 
a period of at least 10 years. 

Second, to consolidate the present small and inadequate plants into 
a small number of modern, up-to-date school buildings with adequate 
playgrounds, thus providing for the maximum educational oppor- 
tunities for children as well as for community uses of the plant. 

Like most cities, Athens is laboring under the handicap of having 
too many small buildings. Many small buildings are more expensive 
than a few large modern plants. They are more expensive in cost 
of upkeep as well as in initial cost. They also provide fewer modern 
facilities for the children. The larger the school within limits, the 
more economical it becomes and the richer the facilities that can 
be offered to children. A school of 1,200 pupils can afford such 
facilities as an auditorium, shops, gymnasium, laboratories, etc., 
whereas if the children were housed in two school buildings with 
separate sites, equipment, teaching force, janitorial service, and cost 
of upkeep, the total expense would be far greater. For example, a 
glance at Table 3 shows that the Athens public schools have spent 
during the past 10 years (1910-11 to 1919-20) $50,120 on repairs, 
fuel and light, furniture and equipment, maintenance of grounds, 
and rent account. Of this amount, $20,446 is for repairs alone, and 
the item for repairs in 1919-20 was twelve times as much as it was in 
1910-11. These items are not given by schools, but if they were 
it would doubtless be found that the greatest expense for repairs 
was in the oldest schools. In other words, the maintenance of 
many old and decrepit plants is a waste of money. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



23 



Table 3. — Cost of repairs, fuel and light, furniture and equipment, maintenance of 
grounds, rent account for public schools, by years, from 1910-11 to 1919-20, inclusive. 





1910-11 


1911-12 


1912-13 


1913-14 


1914-15 


1915-16 


1916-17 


1917-18 


1918-19 


1919-20 


Total. 


Repairs 


$531 
1,176 

1,397 


$1, 200 
33 

445 


$1, 329 
1, 213 

1.371 


$1,265 
1, 150 

629 
134 
364 


$1, 429 
1,585 

756 
194 

247 


$1, 979 
1, 590 

988 

240 


$2, 285 
1,571 

1,917 
22 
240 


$1, 956 
2,359 

1,144 

56 

220 


$2, 092 
2, 943 

465 

7 

290 


$6, 381 
2,053 

692 

240 


$20, 446 
16, 273 

9,804 




Furniture and equip- 


Mainf -nance of grounds 


412 




961 


382 


3, 1.85 








Total 


3,104 


2, 639 


4,295 


3, 542 


4,211 


4, 797 


6, 035 


5, 734 5, 797 

n 


9,966 


50, 120 





As a matter of fact, Athens has barely enough children in all the 
white schools for one good-sized building, and the same is true of 
the Negro schools, but owing to the geographical conditions of the 
city it will doubtless be necessary to have at least one school for 
whites on the east side of the Oconee River and one on the west 
side. The same is true for the Negro schools. In the detailed build- 
ing program, however, two alternate plans are given, the first pro- 
viding for two schools for whites and two for Negroes, and the 
second plan providing for three each. 

Third, the aim has been to work out a building program which 
will give modern school facilities to all the children in the public 
school system. Too often there is a tendency in communities to 
invest all the available funds in one or two buildings which can 
be used only by a minority of the children. This is neither demo- 
cratic nor fair to the children of the city. The city's funds should 
be so spent that all children would receive an increase in the oppor- 
tunity for a modern, all-round education. This is not only important 
from an educational standpoint, but is the most economical plan 
in the end, for if old buildings are allowed to continue without 
additions or improvements, far more money has to be spent on them 
in the end than if they had been renovated in time. 

Fourth, two building programs are submitted. . The first is a 
permanent building program, which shows what ought to be done 
in order to provide adequate modern school buildings and equip- 
ment. This building program, however, requires more funds than 
are available with the present contemplated bond issue of $323,000. 
Therefore, a second building program has been outlined showing 
what it is possible to do with the bond issue of $323,000. 

It should be clearly understood that the permanent building- 
program is not simply an idealistic outline of what it would be 
desirable to give the children of Athens, but that it is a program 
which it is financially possible for Athens to carry out if it is spread 
over a period of years. And the building program for the bond 
issue is planned to carry out as much as possible of the permanent 
building program at the present time. It is one thing to spend 



24 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

$323,000 to meet immediate needs with no consideration of the future; 
it is another to spend that amount as part of a statesmanlike plan 
for developing a modern school plant in the city. It is felt that 
Athens will not be satisfied with anything short of such a plan. 

Fifth, the cost of the program has been worked out after careful 
study of building costs, not only in Athens but in the country as a 
whole. Furthermore, the costs have been estimated on the basis 
of actual drawings for the type of building recommended. 

The present* building costs are about 35 cents per cubic foot. 
It is estimated that soon they will be down to 30 cents per cubic 
foot. This makes the classroom cost of a building $12,000 per 
classroom unit. "Classroom unit costs" include not only the cost 
of classrooms but of gymnasiums and auditoriums, corridors, stairs, 
principal's office, teachers' rest room, toilets. When additions are 
erected the classroom cost is about $10,000, and the auditorium 
and gymnasium are estimated separately. In cases where the addi- 
tion is attached to the school the cost has been given in accordance 
with the actual drawing and cubic foot cost. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF EQUIPMENT. 

The cost of equipment is based upon the most recent information 
of cost of equipment for each different kind of activity. The im- 
portance of providing modern equipment can not be too strongly 
emphasized. Up to the present time Athens in erecting its most 
recent building has made the mistake of providing only enough 
funds for the shell of the building and almost no funds for equipment. 
This is comparable to erecting a factory for turning out automobiles 
and providing no funds for machines or tools. It is futile to provide 
workshops for children without providing tools for them to use in 
the workshop; furthermore, an inadequate supply of tools is only 
a handicap and an exasperation. 

IMPORTANCE OF FIREPROOF BUILDINGS. 

The estimates of the cost of buildings will probably come as a 
surprise and a shock to many citizens. This is because Athens up 
to the present time has not been in the habit of erecting fireproof 
buildings for her children. She can not afford, however, not to 
change that policy. Great care is taken nowadays that modern 
office buildings in which adults work should be of fireproof construc- 
tion. For example, one of the most recent office buildings erected 
in Athens is of that type, and cost over $300,000. All modern 
factories are fireproof. A hospital just erected in Athens is fireproof 
and cost some $300,000. A church recently erected cost $200,000. 
Just around the corner from the board of education is a fine, modern, 
fireproof building for making ice cream, which cost $50,000. Yet 



SCHOOL BUILDING PBOGEAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 25 

there is not a public school building in Athens that cost $50, 000. 
Isn't the safety of 3,000 children as important as that of people 
who work in office buildings ? Isn't it as important to protect 
children before they have to be sent to hospitals as after they arrive 
there? Isn't the preservation of children's lives and health as im- 
portant as the preservation of cotton or ice cream ? 

Of course these questions answer themselves, and there is no 
community that would be quicker to answer in the affirmative than 
Athens, but like many cities it has up to the present time simply 
failed to realize that its children are no longer in little red school- 
houses, and that it must be prepared to spend as much on its school 
buildings as on its office buildings and factories. 

The estimates given represent the amount being spent on school 
buildings in the country as a whole. 

The aim in working out this building program has been to make 
it practicable for Athens to carry it out. One of the greatest diffi- 
culties in carrying out a modern school building program is that 
the average citizen does not visualize the modern type of school. 
Therefore the floor plans of such a school are given in Exhibits 
A and B. 

One of the advantages of the type of building recommended is that 
it can be put up gradually; that is, one floor can be erected and later 
a second added; or the whole of the first floor, with the exception of 
the gymnasium and auditorium, can be erected and these two facili- 
ties can be added later; or merely the outer perimeter of the first 
floor can be erected and the gymnasium, auditorium, domestic 
science and workshop added later. This means that, in the building 
program for the bond issue, it is possible to start three modern 
buildings instead of putting all the money into one. 13 

In the program recommended for the bond issue a certain number 
of portable additions are recommended, owing to the fact that the 
bond issue does not provide adequate funds for the complete building 
program. Two things should be clearly understood, however, about 
these portables. In the first place they are not of the usual type, 
but are of a modern, sanitary type that pan be secured in separate 
units and combined into one building if so desired. It is possible to 
secure a classroom type, or an auditorium fully equipped, or a 
gymnasium, or shops, or cooking room. Every city should have a 
certain number of these portables, since the population is always 
moving and it is undesirable to erect a new permanent building until 
it is certain that the growth of population in a certain section is more 
or less permanent. Therefore, the portables recommended can 
always be used in different sections of the city as the school popula- 
tion moves. 



" A full description of the building will be found in Appendix III. 
68043°— 2] 1 



26 



SCHOOL. BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 




SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



27 



53 

CO « 




28 SCHOOL BUILDING PBOGEAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A PERMANENT BUILDING PROGRAM FOR 

WHITE SCHOOLS. 

Two alternate plans are suggested for the pemianant building 
program for white schools. One provides for two white elementary- 
schools and one high school; the other provides for three elementary- 
schools and one high school. 

PLAN 1. 

This plan provides. for housing all the children east of the Oconee 
River in the Oconee School, to which an addition should be built; 
for housing all the children west of the Oconee River in a new build- 
ing to be erected on the Chase Street site; and for a new high-school 
building to be erected on the present high-school site. 

1. A new building for Childs, College Avenue, Baxter, and Nanta- 
Jiala. — This building should include all the children at present in the 
above four schools and also the eighth grade from the high school. 
Such a school could not strictly be said to include junior high school 
organization, as there are not more than 8 grades, but as there are 
only 11 grades in the high school the ninth grade could not well be 
taken out without adding a twelfth to the high school. The buildings 
will be so constructed, however, that they can be added to in order 
to provide for these extra grades if desired. 

The number to be provided for in this building would be as follows: 

Childs 410 

College Avenue 429 

Baxter Street 305 

Nantahala 220 

Total 1, 364 

Eighth grade 132 

Total 1, 496 

20 per cent increase in 10 years ' 299 

Total (for a 45-elass school) : 1. 795 

This should be made into a 46-class school. It is understood 
throughout this report that a class is reckoned on the basis of an 
enrollment of 40 pupils per class. 

Under the work-study-play plan, there would be needed 23 class- 
rooms. There should also be 1 auditorium, 2 gymnasiums, a,nd 13 

1 In estimating the percentage of increase of growth to be allowed for the next 10 years the following 
actors are considered: The per cent of increase in the last 10 years checked by the percentage of increase 
in the last 6 years— wliich covers the war period— and the location of the school. For example, the enroll- 
ment in Childs, College Avenue, Baxter, and Nantahala increased 24.5 per cent in the past 10 years, but 
in the last 6 years it increased by only 10 per cent, therefore it seems fair to allow for an increase of not more 
than 20 per cent for the next 10 years. In the case of the Negro schools the enrollment in the Newtown, 
West Athens, and Reese Street Schools has increased 64 per cent in the last 10 years but has fallen off in 
the last 6. But, because of the annexation of the new territory which has so greatly increased the enroll- 
ment in the West Athens School during the last year (50 per cent), it seems fair to allow for an increase of 
approximately 40 per cent in these three schools in the next 10 years. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 29 

special rooms. It is possible to have any kind of special rooms that 
the school authorities and parents desire. For example, they could 
be arranged as follows : Four shops for boys (manual training, print 
shop, forge, and metal shop), 1 cooking room and 1 sewing room, 1 
mechanical drawing room and I freehand drawing room, 1 music 
room, 1 nature-study room for the younger children, 1 chemistry 
laboratory and 1 physics laboratory for the older children, and 1 
library. This would make a school building of 36 units, without 
counting the auditorium and 2 gymnasiums. 13 

The cost of a 36-unit building at $12,000 per unit would be $432,000. 
The equipment would come to $78,000, on the basis of $2,000 for 
equipment per unit, counting 1 auditorium and 2 gymnasiums as an 
additional 3 units. The total cost then for the building and equip- 
ment would be $510,000. 

Under the traditional plan 23 additional classrooms would be 
needed. This would require another floor. The classroom cost in 
this case would be at the rate of $10,000 each, or a total of $230,000. 
The additional equipment would come to $46,000. This makes the 
total cost for the building under the traditional plan $786,000, as 
compared with $510,000 on the work-study-play plan. 

The objection might be made that consolidating ail these schools 
into one makes the distance too great for the children to travel. As 
a matter of fact, no child would hare to go more than a mile, and 
some children are already walking that distance to attend these 
schools, but even when they have to go as far as a mile, it is better 
to transport children to a modern up-to-date school than to try to 
accommodate them in small, inadequate buildings near home. The 
city has much to learn from the country in respect to the value of 
consolidating schools. 

2. An addition for Oconee School. — The Oconee School should 
house all the children from the first grade through the eighth on the 
east side of the Oconee River. The enrollment to be provided for 
would be as follows: 

Present enrollment, grades 1-6 250 

Estimated number in seventh and eighth grades H ! SO 

Total . . . . : 330 

44 per cent increase in 10 years 145 

Total ( 1 2 classes) 475 

This makes a school of 12 classes. Under the work-study-play 
plan 6 classrooms would be needed. The school should also have 1 

» See Exhibit A for type of building recommended. In order to adapt it to a 46-class school, 11 class- 
rooms would have to be added either in a third story or to the wings. 

" The principal has a list of 75 children, 6-15 years of age, in the district, who at present are not attending 
public school. 



30 



SCHOOL, BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



auditorium, 1 gymnasium, and 4 special rooms, for example, 1 nature- 
study room, 1 manual-training room, 1 cooking room, and 1 drawing 
room. This makes 10 units. 

There are at present available in the existing building G classrooms. 
An addition is therefore needed for this building. It is recommended 



Boiler Room 




Exhibit C— Suggested addition for Oconee School This plan, with the addition of two rooms, is also 

applicable for Baxter School. 

that the 2 classrooms at the rear of the building be torn down, and 
an addition of 6 units, an auditorium and a gymnasium, be attached 
to the present building. The building thus reconstructed would 
have the auditorium and gymnasium on the ground floor directly 
facing the front door, and 2 wings on either side of that portion of the 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 31 

building which now contains the 4 classrooms. A rough drawing of 
such an addition is given in Exhibit C. 

The cost of such an addition would be $112,120, and the equipment 
would be $16,000, making a total of $128,120. This cost is based 
upon the actual building plans for this school, herewith submitted. 

Under the traditional plan six additional classrooms would be 
needed, at a cost of about $60,000 plus equipment $12,000, making 
a total of $72,000, or a grand total under the traditional plan of 
$200,120, as over against $128,120 under the work-study-play plan. 

3. New building for the high school. — The high school now has 
four grades — the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh. It is proposed 
under this plan to make it a three-year school by sending the eighth 
grade to the new building, on Chase Street. The enrollment in the 
three grades is 213 pupils. Allowing for an increase of 56 per cent 
in the next 10 years, or 119 pupils, the number to be provided for 
is 332. Fortunately, the high school has ample grounds, but the 
present building, which is nothing but an old courthouse, should 
be torn down. A new building should be erected to contain 6 rooms 
for academic work in English, history, Latin, Spanish, mathe- 
matics, and French, and 14 special rooms arranged as follows: 
Science — 1 chemistry room., 1 physics, 1 biology; shops — 1 wood- 
working, 1 foundry, 1 forge, 1 machine shop, 1 pattern shop, 1 cook- 
ing, 1 sewing, 1 mechanical drawing, 1 freehand drawing, 1 library, 
and 1 music room. 

This makes 20 units plus an auditorium and 2 gymnasiums. 
The cost of 20 units at $12,000 would be $240,000. The equip- 
ment of 23 rooms at $2,000 would be $46,000, making a total of 
$286,000. When a building, however, is as small as this, the cost 
increases. Therefore, it is impossible to include the cost of the 
auditorium and gymnasium in the $12,000 unit cost. It is nec- 
essary to provide an additional $100,000 for the auditorium and 
gymnasium, making a total for the whole building of $386,000. 
The equipment would be $46,000. Under the traditional plan the 
cost will be practically the same, since the high school is depart- 
mentalized throughout. 



32 



SCHOOL. BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



SUMMARY OF COST OF DESIRABLE PERMANENT BUILDING PROGRAM 

FOR WHITE SCHOOLS. 

Plan 1. — Oh the basis of two elementary schools and our higli school- 

(a) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



Buildings. 


Number 
of pupils 
accommo- 
dated. 


Cost of 
equipment. 

$78, 000 

16, 000 
46, 000 


Cost. ()[ 
buildings. 


Total cost. 


One new building for Childs, College Avenue, Baxter, 


1,840 

4.80 
332 


$ 132, 000 

112,120 
386, 000 


$510, 000 


1,840 pupils. 

46 classes. 
23 classrooms. 
13 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 


128, 120 


1 auditorium. 

1 gymnasium. 

2 classrooms. 

4 special rooms. 


132, 000 


332 pupils. 
6 classrooms. 
14 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 




Total 


2, 652 


110,000 


930, 120 


1, 070, 120 







(ft) TRADITIONAL PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS 



One new building for Childs, College Avenue, Baxter, 
and Nantahala 

1,840 pupils. 
46 classes. 
46 classrooms. 

13 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 

An addition for Oconee School 

1 auditorium. 

1 gymnasium. 

4 classrooms. 

4 special rooms. 
A new building for the high school 

332 pupils. 

6 classrooms. 

14 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 



Total. 



1,840 



332 



2,652 



$124, 000 



$662, 000 



172, 120 



46,000 I 386,000 



198, 000 i 1, 220, 120 



7S6, 000 



200, 120 



432, 000 



1,418,120 



PLAN 2. 

Plan 2 is worked out on the basis of three elementary schools and 
a high school. The difference between plans 1 and 2 is that plan 2 
provides for a new 6-grade building for Baxter School in addition 
to the new building for the Chase Street site. Although under 
ordinary circumstances it would be undesirable to put up such a 
small building as would be necessary for the Baxter School, }^et on 
account of the distance from Chase Street and the development of 
the city in that direction the erection of a permanent building for 
the younger children in the sixth grade of the Baxter School might 
be justified. It depends entirely on whether the board of educa- 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHEISTS, GA. 33 

tion wishes to adopt the policy of having some small 6-grade schools. 
Under such a plan the following buildings would have to be pro- 
vided for: 

1. A new building for CMlds, College Avenue, Nantahala, seventh 
grade of Baxter, and the eighth grade from the high school. — The number 
to be provided for would be as follows: 

Ohilds 410 

( 'oil ege Avenue 429 

Nantahala 220 

Seventh grade of Baxter 40 

Eighth grade from the high school 132 

Total (in a 30-class school) 1, 231 

20 per cent increase in 10 years 246 

Total (37 classes) 1, 477 

This should be made into a 38-class school. The number of 
classrooms needed would be 19, the number of special rooms 11, 
total units to be provided for 30, in addition to 1 auditorium and 
2 gymnasiums. 

The cost of 30 units, at $12,000, would be $360,000. The equip- 
ment would be $66,000, or a total of $426,000. 

Under the traditional plan 19 more rooms would be needed, at a 
cost of $10,000, or $190,000. Additional equipment would be 
$38,000, making an additional cost of $228,000, or a grand total 
under the traditional plan of $654,000, as over against $426,000 
under the work-study-play plan. 

2. A new building for 6 grades at Baxter School. — The enrollment 
to be provided for would be as follows : 

Enrollment minus seventh grade 265 

11 per cent increase in 10 years 29 

Total (8 classes) 294 

Under the work-study-play plan, it would be necessary to provide 
4 classrooms and 4 special rooms — 1 shop for boys, 1 cooking room, 
1 nature-study and drawing room, 1 music room — making 8 units, 
together with an auditorium and gymnasium. The same plan for a 
building that is proposed for the Oconee School could be used for the 
Baxter School, with an addition of 2 classrooms. These two extra 
rooms would cost $12,960, the equipment $1,000, making a total of 
$13,960. The cost of the Oconee School was $128,120, which, in 
addition to the $13,960, would make the total cost for Baxter 
$142,080. 15 

Under the traditional plan, 4 additional classrooms would be 
needed at a cost of $40,000, plus equipment $4,000, making a total 
of $44,000, or a grand total under the traditional plan of $186,080. 

15 See Exhibit C. The classrooms can be added at the front of the building or at the rear. 
63043°— 21 5 



34 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



o. An addition for the Oconee School. — The plan and cost of this 
building would remain the same as under Plan 1, that is, $128,120 
under the work-study-play plan; or $200,120 under the traditional 
plan. 

Plan 2. — On the basis of three elemental y schools and one high school. 
(a) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



Buildings. 


Number 
of pupils 
accommo- 
dated. 


Cost of 

equipment. 


Cost Of 

buildings. 


Total cost. 


One new building for Child*, College Avenue, seventh 
grade Baxter, Nantahala, and eighth grade 


1,520 

320 

4S0 
332 


$66, 000 

17,000 

16,000 
46,000 


§360, 000 

125, 080 

1 12, 120 
3*0,000 


$426,000 
142 l; 


38 classes. 

19 classrooms. 
11 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 

One new' building for 6 grades of Baxter 


8 classes. 
4 classrooms. 
4 special rooms. 
1 auditorium. 
1 gymnasium. 


1 2s 1?0 


1 auditorium. 

1 gymnasium. 

2 classrooms. 

4 special rooms. 


432, 000 


332 pupils. 
6 classrooms. 
14 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 


Total. 


2,652 | 145,000 983,200 


] 128 200 








5 000 


Grand total 








1 133 200 













(6) TRADITIONAL PLAN— CAPACITY' AND COSTS. 



One new building for Childs, College Avenue, seventh 
grade Baxter, Nantahala, and eighth grade 


1,520 


$104, 000 
32,000 

28, 000 

40,000 


$550, 000 

212,120 

172, 120 
3S6, 000 


$654, 000 
241 120 


38 classes. 
38 classrooms, 
n special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 

One new' building lor 6 grades of Baxter 


320 

480 
332 


8 classes. 
8 classrooms. 
4 special rooms. 
1 auditorium. 
1 gymnasium. 
An addition for Oconee 


200 120 


1 auditorium. 
1 gymnasium. 
4 classrooms. 
4 special rooms. 
A new building for the high school 


432 000 


332 pupils. 
6 classrooms. 
14 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 




Total 


2,652 


210 000 


1 SSfl 240 


1,530,240 






Land 






5 000 






1 




Grand total 






1,535,240 






1 





SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM fob atheists, ga. 85 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A PERMANENT BUILDING PROGRAM FOR 

NEGRO SCHOOLS. 

In 1910-11 there were 806 children in the Negro schools. In 
1919-20 there were 1,065, an increase of 32.1 per cent in 10 years. 
There are at present four school buildings for Negro children, the 
High and Industrial School, West Athens School, and Newtown 
School, which take care of all the children to the west of the Oconee 
River; and the East Athens School, which takes care of all the chil- 
dren east of the Oconee River. 

As is the case with the white schools, there are hardly enough chil- 
dren in the Negro schools to make one fair-sized school; but, because 
of the geographical location of the population, it is not possible to 
house all the children in one school. The East Athens School is in 
a district by itself and should be treated as a separate unit, taking 
care of all the children to the east of the Oconee River. All the 
children on the west side of the Oconee River should be housed in a 
new building to be erected for the High and Industrial School. 

The detailed recommendations follow: 

1. A new building for the High and Industrial, West Athens, and 
Newtown Schools. — Athens is justly proud of the fact that it has 
the first and only Negro high school in Georgia. Among the many 
educational achievements of Athens few are more significant than 
the development of this school. The fine spirit of the school and the 
progressive and thorough work being done there are things of which 
the city may well be proud. But even a slight study of the situation 
is sufficient to indicate that the needs of the school have far outgrown 
the building and equipment, and that it is now laboring under very 
serious handicaps in the matter of tools with which to carry on its 
work. 

One of the most serious handicaps is the fact that the size of the 
school has been decreased by taking the lower grades out and sending 
them to the Newtown School; a building which should never have 
been used for school purposes. A glance at the enrollment figures 
shows that ever since the lower grades were taken out of the High 
and Industrial School, the net enrollment in the Newtown and High 
and Industrial districts has fallen off. 10 For example, in 1916-17, 
when the High and Industrial School included grades 1-11, the enroll- 
ment for the two schools was 546, whereas in 1919-20 when the High 
and Industrial School had only grades 4-11 the enrollment for the 
two districts dropped to 325. This falling off is not due to fewer 
children in that part of the city, for in 1910-11 there were 456 west 
of the Oconee River and in 1919-20 there were 747, a gain of 291, 
or 64 per cent in 10 years. Moreover, there was no falling off in 
enrollment in the Newtown and Reese Street districts until the lower 



>« See enrollment in public schools, 1913-14 to 1919-20 inclusive, Appendix IV. 



36 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

grades were taken out of the High and Industrial School, 1918-19, 
when the enrollment in the elementary grades for these two districts 
dropped suddenly. There was no decrease in the West Athens dis- 
trict and there was none to speak of in the East Athens district in 
that year. It does not seem reasonable to suppose that the influenza 
epidemic hit this district so much harder than any other. Rather, 
it is reasonable to suppose that when children are transferred to a 
building like the Newtown School, they simply do not go to school. 
Failure on the part of the city to provide modern school buildings 
ultimately always means that fewer and fewer children get an edu- 
cation. Customers will not come to a business firm which is housed 
in an old, tumble-down, insanitary building; hence modern office 
buildings are erected. The children are the customers of the schools. 
Why should they be expected to go to school in an old insanitary 
building? What has it to offer them? There are no laws which 
can compel attendance in such a building as the Newtown School. 

The West Athens School is a somewhat better building than the 
Newtown School, but it is an old, wooden frame structure, badly 
constructed, and with no modern facilities. The cost of reconstruct- 
ing it would be out of all proportion to the original value of the 
plant. Furthermore, the number of children in the school is too small 
to justify erecting a new building for it. 

In other words, it is important both from an educational and 
financial standpoint to house all the children on the west side of the 
Oconee River in a new building to be erected on the present High 
and Industrial School site. This would make a combination ele- 
mentary and high school, the total enrollment of which would be 
about 1,200 children, or the minimum necessary for a modern, 
economical plant. The original cost of such a plant may seem large, 
but it should be remembered that by erecting such a school building 
the cost of maintaining three separate buildings is eliminated. 
The cost of this one plant would not only cover the cost of three 
separate day schools but it would also provide for the evening High 
and Industrial School. Therefore, the plan recommended represents 
the cost for four schools, not one. Furthermore, such a building 
would provide a school plant for Negro children which would not only 
be a credit to the city but an example to be followed by all the other 
cities in the State. 

The objection might be made that the consolidation of these three 
schools in one plant at the High and Industrial School would neces- 
sitate children having to walk too long a distance to school. As a 
matter of fact, however, no pupil under such a consolidation would 
have a farther distance to walk than many pupils have to walk 
now. The districts at present overlap; for example, 10 pupils from 
the High and Industrial district go to Newtown School, and 41 pupils 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 37 

from the Newtown district go to the High and Industrial School; 
103 pupils from the West Athens district go to the High and Indus- 
trial School, and 68 pupils from the High and Industrial district 
go to the West Athens School. The majority of pupils in the West 
Athens district would not be more than a mile and a quarter from the 
High and Industrial School. At the present time there are pupils 
attending the Newtown School and the West Athens School who lire 
a mile and a half from each of those schools. 

The enrollment to be provided in this combination elementary 
and high school would be as follows: 

High and Industrial High School Ill 

Elementary 163 

Newtown 182 

West Athens, 1920 291 

Total 747 

Increase in 10 years (39 per cent) 290 

Increase in enrollment in West Athens due to extension of territory ;..-.. 109 

Total (in 29 classes) 1, 146 

Make this a school of 30 classes, that is, 6 high-school classes of 
30 pupils each and 24 elementary classes of 40 pupils each. Pro- 
viding merely for the activities at present carried on in the school, 
the number of classrooms and special rooms would be as follows: 4 
classrooms for the high-school students for English, mathematics, 
Latin, and history; 12 elementary classrooms and 12 special rooms; 
for example, 1 chemistry laboratory, 1 physics laboratory, 5 shops 
(a foundry, forge, machine shop, woodworking, plastering), 1 cooking 
room, 1 sewing room, 1 mechanical drawing room, 1 music room, 1 
library. The school now has all these subjects but no adequate 
rooms or equipment with which to teach them. There should also, 
of course, be an auditorium and 2 gymnasiums. This would make 
28 units. 4 

The cost of 28 units at $12,000 would be $336,000, and the cost of 
equipment would be $62,000, making a total of $398,000. This 
makes a per pupil cost of $331, as over against a per pupil cost in 
the white high school of $1,199. 

Under the traditional plan 12 extra rooms would be needed at a 
cost of $120,000 and equipment $24,000, making a total of $144,000 
additional, or a grand total of $542,000 under the traditional plan, 
as over against $398,000 under the work-study-play plan. 

2. A new building for East Athens School. — The present building 
for this school is an old wooden frame structure. It was built for 
240 children and it contains 429. There are only 6 classrooms in 
the building, and these are nothing but bare rooms with the black- 
boards so placed that it is almost impossible for any children except 
those in the front row to read what is written on them. There is 



38 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



no principal's office or teachers' rest room, and although the school 
is really a social center as well as a school where children are taken 
care of when they are sick or poorly clad, yet there are no cloakrooms 
and no rest room or clinic. There is no shop or cooking room, or 
auditorium or play room. 

A new building should be erected which would serve both as a 
schoolhouse and a social center for this part of the town. 

The enrollment to be provided for in this school is as follows: 

Present enrollment 429 

Sixth and seventh grades 80 



Total 

Eighteen per cent increase in 10 years. 



509 
90 



Total (in 15 classes) 599 

This should be a 16-class school (640 pupils). It will be necessary 
to have, in addition to an auditorium and a gymnasium, 8 classrooms 
and 6 special rooms, for example, 2 shops for boys, a cooking room, 
1 sewing room, 1 drawing and nature study room, and 1 music room, 
making a total of 14 units. The total cost for this building would- 
be $200,000. This represents more than the $12,000 unit cost, be- 
cause a smaller building is always more expensive. The equipment 
for 16 units at $2,000 would be $32,000, making a total of $232,000. 
Under the traditional plan 8 additional classrooms would be needed 
at a cost of $80,000, which, with $16,000 for additional equipment, 
would come to $96,000, making a total cost under the traditional 
plan of $328,000, as compared with $232,000 under the work-study- 
play plan. 

SUMMARY OF COST PERMANENT BUILDING PROGRAM FOR NEGRO 

SCHOOLS. 

On basii of one elementary school and one comoination elementary and high school. 
(a) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



Buildings. 


Number 
of pupils 
accommo- 
dated. 


Cost of 
equipment. 


Cost of 
buildings. 


Total cost. 


New V>uilding for High and Industrial School, West 


1,200 
640 


$62, 000 
32,000 


$336, 000 
200,000 


1398,000 


30 classes, 1,200 pupils. 
16 classrooms. 
12 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 


232,000 


640 pupils. 

8 classes. 
4 classrooms. 
4 special rooms. 
1 auditorium, 
l gymnasium. 




Total 


1,840 


94,000 


536, 000 


030,000 




10.000 
















640,000 











SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM TOR ATHENS, CIA. 



39 



On basis of one elementary school and one combination elementanj and high school — Con. 
(6) TRADITIONAL PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



Building. 


Number 
of pupils 
accommo- 
dated. 


Cost or 

equipment. 


Cost of 
buildings. 


Total cost. 


New building for High and Industrial School, West 


1,200 
640 


386, 000 

4S, 000 


$456, 000 
280, 000 


5542,000 


1,200 pupils. 
30 classes. 
28 classrooms. 
12 special rooms. 

1 auditorium. 

2 gymnasiums. 


328,000 


640 pupils. 
8 classes. 
8 classrooms. 
4 special rooms. 
1 auditorium. 
1 gymnasium. 




Total 


1,840 


134, 000 


736, 000 


870, 000 




10,000 












Grand total 








880, 000 











SUMMARY OF COST — -PERMANENT BUILDING PROGRAM FOR WHITE 

AND NEGRO SCHOOLS. 

Plan 1— (o) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 





Number 
of pupils 
accom- 
modated. 


Cost of 
equip- 
ment. 


Cost of 
buildings. 


Total 
cost. 


White schools 


2,652 


$140, 000 


.1930, 120 


$1,070,120 


Land 


Negro schools 


1,840 


94, 000 


536, 000 


630, 000 




10 000 












Total 


4,492 


234, 000 


1,466,120 


1, 710, 120 









Plan 1. 


-(6) TRADITIONAL PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 




White schools 


2,652 
1,840 


198, 000 
134, 000 


1,220,120 
736, 000 


1,418,120 


Negro schools 


870 000 


Land - 


10, 000 













Total 


4, 492 


332, 000 


1,956,120 


2, 298, 120 







Plan 2.— (a) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



White schools 


2,652 


145, 000 


983, 200 


1,128,200 


Land 


5,000 

630, 000 

10, 000 




1,840 


94,000 


536, 000 


Land 










Total 


4,492 


239, 000 


1,519,200 


1, 773, 200 







Plan2.-(6) TRADITIONAL PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



White schools 


2, 652 


210,000 


1,320,240 


1 530 240 




5,000 
870 000 


Negro schools 


1,840 


134, 000 


736, 000 




1:) 000 











Total 


4,492 341 MM 


2)058,240' 


2 415 '?4i) 











40 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

ATHENS HAS THE WEALTH TO CARRY OUT THE PERMANENT BUILDING 

PROGRAM PROPOSED. 

The taxable wealth of Athens at present is given at -1514,900,000, 
including the recently annexed territory. It is possible to bond the 
city up to 7 per cent of the taxable wealth, $1,043,000, but there are 
outstanding bonds at present for $720,000, which leaves available 
at present for a bond issue $323,000. 

Taxable wealth of Athens, Ga. 

Real property $8, 536, 125 

Annexed territory 1, 400, 000 

Personal property 4, 963, 875 

Total taxable wealth at 60 per cent property valuation 14, 900, 000 

Considering the fact that such a small amount as $323,000 is 
available for a school building program, it would seem that the pre- 
ceding permanent building program, which calls for a minimum of 
$1,710,120, is far beyond the financial capacity of the city to carry 
out. As a matter of fact, however, if the true wealth of the city 
is considered, it is not beyond the financial capacity of Athens to 
carry out the permanent program. 

At the present time property in Athens is assessed at 60 per cent 
valuation. If it were assessed at a 100 per cent valuation, the true 
taxable wealth would be $24,833,333. Therefore, the amount of 
money available for bonds, at 7 per cent of the taxable wealth, 
would be $1,738,333. Deducting the $720,000 for outstanding 
bonds, there would be left $1,018,333 available for a bond issue, if 
property were assessed at a 100 per cent valuation. 

The fact remains, however, that property at present is not assessed 
at 100 per cent valuation, and therefore only $323,000 is available 
for school building purposes this year. Consequently, a school 
building program has been worked out on the basis of the expendi- 
ture of the $323,000 now available. In planning such a program 
two things have been borne in mind — to give relief to the schools 
where the need is most pressing and to work out the program so 
that it will fit into the permanent building program, thus avoiding 
waste in future building plans. Recommendations for a building 
program on the basis of the proposed bond issue will now be given. 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A BUILDING PROGRAM PLANNED ON THE 
BASIS OF A BOND ISSUE OF $323,000. 

It is obvious that almost any one of the new buildings planned 
would take most of the money now available to meet the needs of 
all the schools. Therefore it is undesirable to erect any one of the 
buildings in to to with the funds available in this bond issue, since 
that would make it impossible to give all the children increased 



SCHOOL BUILDING PEOGEAM FOE ATHENS, GA. 41 

educational advantages. The funds have been so distributed in 
the following building program that all children will get the oppor- 
tunity for healthy work and play as well as study in good classrooms. 
It is possible to accomplish this (1) by erecting parts of each of the 
buildings proposed and erecting them in such a way that they can 
be added to later on when additional funds are available; (2) by 
erecting modern portable units not only in the form of classrooms 
but of auditoriums, gymnasiums, shops, cooking rooms, and science 
rooms, so that all children may have the opportunity for these 
activities whether they are in temporary or permanent structures. 

THE SCHOOLS MOST IN NEED OF RELIEF. 

Baxter School, Oconee School, and the combination elementary 
and high school for Negro children are the schools which need relief 
immediately; the Baxter School because the building is utterly unfit 
for school purposes, and is in far worse condition than any other 
white school; the Oconee School because the congestion there is 
greater than in any other white school; and the combination ele- 
mentary and high school for Negro children, because by starting 
this building the needs of three schools can be taken care of at once, 
whereas, if this were not done, it would be necessary to go to the 
expense of three sets of portable buildings, which would be an 
economic waste. 

Both Childs and College Avenue Schools are fairly modern build- 
ings, and if organized on the work-study-play plan there is plenty of 
room in these buildings not only for present enrollment but for 
growth for five years. The only additions needed would be a portable 
auditorium and gymnasium. No permanent building should be 
provided for Nantahala pending its inclusion in the new school 
building which should be erected for Childs, College Avenue, and 
Nantahala, but special facilities can be given to these children by 
means of modern portable auditorium, gymnasium, and shops. 
The needs of East Athens can also be taken care of by the addition 
of special facilities until a new building can be put up under the 
permanent building program. 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE WHITE SCHOOLS. 

1 . A new building for Baxter School. — The enrollment to be pro- 
vided for in this school, allowing for 11 per cent increase in 10 years, 
is 338 children, or 8 classes. The whole of the building recommended 
in the permanent building program — 4 classrooms, 1 shop for boys, 
1 cooking room, 1 nature-study and drawing room, 1 music room, 
auditorium, and gymnasium — can be erected with the exception of 
the auditorium and gymnasium. The cost would be $57,960. (See 



42 • SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

Exhibit C for plan of building.) The equipment would be $8,500, 
making the total cost of the building $66,460. It is possible to 
secure a portable auditorium 30 by 60 feet, fully equipped with 
opera chairs and stage, for $3,500, 17 and a portable gymnasium for 
the same amount. These units are eminently satisfactory, well 
lighted, well heated, and well adapted to the purposes for which 
they are built. The total cost, then, for Baxter School would be 
$73,460. 

Under the traditional plan, four additional rooms would be needed 
at a cost of $40,000, which, with $2,000 for additional equipment, 
makes a total of $42,000, or a grand total, under the traditional plan, 
of $115,460, which would be prohibitive with the funds available 
in the present bond issue. 

2. A new building for Oconee School. — The enrollment to be pro- 
vided for in this school is as follows: 

Present enrollment, grades 1-6 250 

Estimated number in seventh and eiglitli grades 80 

Total 330 

44 per cent increase in 10 years 145 

Total in 12 classes 475 

As was pointed out in the permanent building program, six class- 
rooms would be needed under the work-study-play plan. The school 
should also have one auditorium, one gymnasium, a nature study 
room, manual- training room, and drawing room. This makes 1 units. 

There are available in the existing building 6 classrooms. The 
addition proposed would be added at the rear of the building, after 
the two rear classrooms had been torn down. This building would 
contain six units, an auditorium, and gymnasium. 

The whole of this addition with the exception of the auditorium 
and gymnasium could be erected with the funds available in the 
present bond issue. The cost of the building minus the gymnasium 
and auditorium would be $45,000 and the equipment $7,500, making 
a total cost of $52,500. It would be necessary to erect a portable 
auditorium for $3,500 and a portable gymnasium for the same 
amount, making a total cost for this school of $59,500. The only 
difference from the plan proposed in the permanent building program 
would be that the auditorium and gymnasium would be in portable 
buildings for the present. 

Under the traditional plan six more classrooms would be needed, 
$60,000, with $3,000 for equipment, making $63,000, or a total of 
$122,500. 

3. Childs Street School.— This school is now housed in a compara- 
tively new school building, fairly modern. It has eight classrooms 

17 Cost of portable auditorium $1,800, foundation and cost of erection $700, installation of oleetric 
lights, plumbing, and heating, approximately $1,000. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 43 

and three rooms in the basement, one now used as a classroom and 
another as a cooking room, with a small room for sewing. There 
is also a vacant room in the basement, which could be used as a 
shop. The enrollment is now 410 pupils, and a 20 per cent increase 
in five years would make 492 pupils, or 12 classes to provide for. 

Under the work-study-play plan six classrooms would be needed, 
and there should be four special rooms — for example, one manual- 
training shop, one nature-study room, one cooking room, and one 
drawing room. This makes a total of 10 units, but there are already 
11 rooms in the building. The eleventh room could be used for a 
library if so desired, or a music room, or a teachers' rest room. 
Therefore, the only thing to provide for in this school is a portable 
auditorium and gymnasium, $7,000. There is plenty of space on 
the grounds for the erection of these two units. 

It will be necessary, however, to have equipment for the boys' 
shop, $2,000, and for the cooking room, $3,000. Furthermore, an 
additional item of $5,000 should be provided for repairs around the 
building, for the toilets, etc., and for equipment for the playground. 
The total cost for this school under the work-study-play plan would 
be as follows : 

Movable auditorium - $3, 500 

Movable gymnasium 3. 500 

Equipment for boys' shop 2, 000 

Equipment for cooking so it can be used as a cafeteria 3, 000 

For repairs, plumbing, playground equipment, etc 5, 000 

.17. 000 

Under the traditional plan it would be necessary to have 6 addi- 
tional portable classrooms at a cost of $1,000 each, which would make 
the total cost under the traditional plan $23,000. 

4. College Avenue School. — This school is also housed in a com- 
paratively new building of 13 rooms. As a permanent proposition it 
would be most undesirable to keep two small buildings like the College 
Avenue and Childs Street Schools, but inasmuch as the amount avail- 
able in the bond issue is so limited, it will be necessary to use this 
building for the time being, and there is ample room in it if the 
school is organized on the work-study-play plan. 

The present enrollment is 429 pupiis. Make it into a 12-class 
school. There has been practically no increase in the past 10 years, 
due to the fact that the children have been transferred to the Childs 
Street School; under the work-study-play plan it would be necessary to 
have 6 rooms and 4 special rooms, 1 manual training shop, 1 nature 
study room, 1 cooking room, and 1 drawing room, or a total of 10 uni is. 

But this building has 13 rooms. Therefore, 10 of them can be 
used for the classrooms and special rooms and the partitions be- 
tween the cooking room and the 2 rooms on either side of it on the 



14 SCHOOL BUILDING PEOGEAM FOE ATHENS, GA. 



second floor can be torn out and these 3 rooms made into an audito- 
rium. A portable gymnasium should be put up on the grounds to the 
north of the building. Additional equipment will be needed and the 
additional cost will be as follows: 

tnasium S3, 500 

Equipment for shop 2, 000 

Equipment for cooking room ' . . 2, 000 

Playground equipment, etc 2, 000 

Repairs 2, 000 

Total 11, 560 

Under the traditional plan 6 more classrooms would be needed, 
$6,000 ; and there is no space on the school grounds on which to erect 
them. The total cost would be 117,500. 

5. NaMaltala School. — This district needs not only adequate class- 
room facilities but a school plant which will be a social center for the 
neighborhood. It needs particularly an auditorium for meetings, 
plays, etc., and a gymnasium for recreation in the evening as well as 
in the day. But the school is too small to justify the erection of a 
permanent building now, in view of the fact that in a permanent 
building program Nantahala should be combined with Childs and 
College Avenue and the seventh and eighth grades of Baxter in a 
new building on Chase Street. 

It is important, however, that the children in these schools, pending 
the erection of such a building, should have facilities for shops, nature 
study rooms, auditoriums, and gymnasiums, and it is possible to 
provide such facilities by the addition of portable units equipped for 
these activities. 

The net enrollment at present is 220. Allowing for 14 per cent 
increase in five years, at which time a permanent building program 
should be carried out, there are 250 children, or eight classes, to pro- 
vide for. Four classrooms and four special rooms would be sufficient. 
At present there are available six rooms, i. e., counting as one the two 
rooms that were originally made out of one. Four of these rooms 
could be used as classrooms, one could be used as a nature study room, 
and one as a drawing room. It would then be necessary to provide 
portable buildings for the following units: 

Auditorium S3, 500 

Gymnasium 3, 500 

Shop 2, 000 

Cooking room 3. 000 

K epairs and play equipment 2. 000 

Total 14, 000 

Under the traditional plan four more classrooms would be needed, 
$4,000, making a total cost of $1S,000. About $5,000 would be 
needed for additional land under the work-study-play plan and 
$20,000 under the traditional plan. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 45 

NEGRO SCHOOLS. 

Two alternate plans are submitted for the Negro schools. The 
first, which would be by far the most economical in the long run, has 
been worked out on the basis of providing for two Negro schools, one 
at East Athens and one on the present High and Industrial School 
site. This latter school would be a consolidation of the High and 
Industrial, West Athens, and Newtown Schools, and it is proposed 
that the first floor of the new building recommended in the perma- 
nent building program be erected now to accommodate these pupils. 
The second plan is worked out on the basis of providing for three 
Negro schools — one at East Athens, one at West Athens, and one at 
the High and Industrial, which would combine the High and In- 
dustrial and Newtown Schools. 

PLAN 1. 

1. A new building for the High and Industrial School and West 
Athens and Newtown Schools. — The enrollment to be provided for 
in these three schools is as follows: 

High and Industrial: 

High school Ill 

Elementary 183 

Newtown 182 

West Athens, 1920 291 

Total 747 

Increase in 10 years (39 per cent) 290 

Increase in enrollment in West Athens, due to extension of territory 109 

Total (in 29 classes) 1, 146 

Over a 10-year period this should be counted as a 1,200 pupil, or a 
30 class school, but the actual number to be provided for at present 
would be 856 pupils, of whom 745, or 20 classes, are elementary 
school pupils. It will be necessary, then, to provide 4 rooms for high- 
school pupils — for English, mathematics, Latin, and history — and 10 
classrooms under the work-study-play plan for the 20 elementary 
classes. 

The present building has 8 classrooms and 1 small room in the 
basement used as a shop. There is also an additional building with 
a cooking room and sewing room. By erecting the outer perimeter 
of the first floor of the proposed new building for this school (see 
diagram of building in Exhibit A), 12 permanent rooms would be 
provided, which could be used either as classrooms or as shops. 
These 12 rooms, with the 11 already available, would make 23 units. 
Fourteen of these would have to be used as classrooms, as indicated 
above. This would leave the shop in the basement of the present 
building, the present cooking and sewing room, and six units in the 
new building which would be used for special activities — one for 



46 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM LOR ATHENS, GA. 

science, one for drawing, and four for shops, making, with the existing 
facilities, nine special activity rooms for the whole school. 

The cost of erecting this portion of the permanent building would 
be $78,631, the equipment would be $27,000, making a total cost of 
$105,631. It would be necessary to have a portable gymnasium and 
auditorium, $7,000, and it would also be necessary to set aside $5,000 
to buy additional land for the building and playground. This makes 
a total cost of $112,631 for the building and equipment and $5,000 
for the land. 

It would appear from these figures as though more money were 
being spent on this one school than on any other item, but it should 
be remembered that this amount of money is being spent on three 
schools. As a matter of fact, the per capita building cost for this 
school is only $98, as over against $125 for the addition to Oconee 
School, and $250 for the Baxter School; and if the night school, with 
its enrollment of 200, is counted in, as it should be, the per capita 
cost would be even less. In other words, the most economical 
method of meeting the very great congestion in the Negro schools 
is by consolidating these three schools in a modern up-to-date plant, 
the first floor of which can be erected at this time. But such con- 
solidation without adequate accommodations would be out of the 
question. 

It would be desirable to erect this part of the permanent building 
for these three Negro schools at the earliest possible date, not only 
because it is the best solution of the housing problem, both from an 
educational and a financial standpoint, but also because such an. 
addition, with adequate shop facilities, will greatly aid in carrying 
out the rest of the building program. The shop work done in this 
school is exceptionally good, and there is no reason why the erection 
of the portable buildings, both for this school and the other schools, 
should not be carried on as part of the practical shop work of the 
High and Industrial School. This would be desirable from an edu- 
cational standpoint for the student in the High and Industrial School, 
and would make the erection of the portable buildings more eco- 
nomical than would otherwise be the case. 

Under the traditional plan it would be necessary to have 10 addi- 
tional classrooms, at a cost of nearly $100,000, with $10,000 for 
equipment, making an additional $110,000, or a grand total under 
the traditional plan of $222,631, which would make the erection of 
this building impossible under the present bond issue. 

NUMBER OF TEACHERS NEEDED IN THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE HIGH 
AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, WEST ATHENS AND NEWTOWN. 

The question might be raised as to whether there are sufficient 
teachers for this consolidation. At present in the three schools 
there are 15 regular teachers and 4 specials, or 10 in all, and 3 princi- 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 47 

pals. Under the consolidation under the work-study-play plan, there 
would be needed in addition to the principal of the whole school, 
4 high-school teachers, 10 elementary teachers, and 5 special teach- 
ers — science, drawing, head of manual work, cooking, sewing — ex- 
clusive of the other 4 shop teachers; 1 auditorium teacher, and 2 
gymnasium teachers. That makes a total of 22 teachers, exclusive 
of the 4 shop teachers. But there are available 22 teachers in addi- 
tion to the principal, so that there are at present available sufficient 
teachers for the consolidated school with the exception of a super- 
visor for the primary grades and the 4 shop teachers. 

With regard to the shop teachers, it is recommended that the plan 
carried out in some school systems of employing regular artisans for 
this work be adopted in this school. Under such a plan the men 
who teach shop work are artisans who are employed to work 8 hours 
a day to do the repairs and construction about the building, and the 
boys who elect to work with them on this practical work. 18 Under 
such a plan there is no danger of shop work degenerating into an 
academic subject, as too often happens. Furthermore, under such 
a plan the shop work can be made self-supporting, as is done in some 
school systems. 

2. East Athens School. — The present enrollment in the East Athens 
School is 429 pupils. With a 10 per cent increase for 5 years it would 
be 471, or 12 classes. It is impossible to erect even a part of the 
permanent building for this school with the present bond issue, but 
it is possible to give modern school facilities to the children in portable 
shops, auditorium, and gymnasium. 

Under the work-study-play plan it would be necessary to have six 
classrooms and four special rooms, together with an auditorium and 
gymnasium. There are at present available in the building six 
rooms. Two of the best of these rooms could be used as classrooms, 
the others could be used for shops. It would then be necessary to 
erect portable units as follows : 

4 

One auditorium $3 500 

One gymnasium 3 500 

Four classrooms 4 ; 000 

Equipment for shop 1, 000 

Equipment for cooking 2. 000 

14, 000 

General repair 2, 000 

To make it a unit 4 000 

Total 20, 000 

The total cost of this building would be $20,000. Under the 
traditional plan six more classrooms would be needed, at a cost of 
$6,000; total, $26,000. 

18 The productive shop work in the public schools of Gary, lad., is one example of how such work 
has been organized. 



48 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM TOR ATHENS, GA. 



PLAN 2 FOR NEGRO SCHOOLS. 

The program for the Negro schools above described is strongly 
recommended as the most economical and satisfactory building pro- 
gram for the funds available. Plan 2 providing for three Negro 
schools instead of two would necessitate temporary portable struc- 
tures for the High and Industrial School and West Athens School, 
and would be expensive in the long run. The cost for the Negro 
schools under such a plan would be $101,000 instead of $132,631, but 
there would be the additional cost of maintaining three plants instead 
of two. Furthermore, when the schools are combined and a new 
building erected, the city would be left with $55,000 worth of por- 
table buildings on its hands, which is more than the original difference 
in cost between the two plans. 



SUMMARY OF COST OF BUILDING PROGRAM ON THE BASIS OF THE 

$323,000 BOND ISSUE. 

Plan 1. 
(a) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



Buildings. 


Number 

of pupils 
accommo- 
dated. 


Cost of 
equipment. 


Cost of 
buildings. 


Total cost. 


WHITE SCHOOLS. 

New building for Baxter School 


320 
4S0 
480 

4S0 
320 


$8, 500 

7,500 
5,000 

6,000 


$64, 960 
52, 000 
12,000 

5, 500 
14,000 


73 460 


320 pupils. 

x classes. 
1 classrooms. 
4 special rooms. 

1 portable gymnasium 3, 500 






59.500 


4S0 pupils. 

12 classes. 

6 classrooms. 

4 special rooms. 

1 portable auditorium S3. 500 




T v.o portables forChilds School 


17,000 


480 nupils. 
12 classes. 

1 gymnasium ■ 3, 500 


Equipment, shop 2, 000 

Equipment, cooking 3,000 

Repairs 5, 000 

One portable for College Avenue 


11,500 


480 pupils. 
12 classes. 

Equipment, shop 2.000 


Equipmen l . cooking 2, 000 

Equipment: 

Playgroi md 2, 000 

Repairs 2, 000 

Four portables for Nantahala 


14,000 


320 pupils. 
8 classes. 




1 gymnasium :■;. 500 

1 shop 2,000 

1 cooking room 3,000 

Repairs ... 2,000 










Total 


2,080 1 27,000 148,460 


175,460 


Land 


5,000 







Total for wliitc schools 




ISO, 460 




■ 





SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



49 



Plan 1 — Continued . 
(a) WORK-STUDY-FLAY PLAN— CAPACITY' AND COSTS. 



Buildings. 


Number 
of pupils 
accommo- 
dated. 


Cost of 

equipment. 


Cost of 
buildings. 


Total cost. 


XEGKO SCHOOLS. 

One floor of now building for High and Industrial 

School, West Athens and Newtown Schools 

1,200 pupils. 
30 classes. 
G classrooms. 
6 special rooms. 


1 , 200 


$27,000 


$85,631 


5112,631 




480 


20,000 


480 pupils. 
12 classes. 




! 




1 gymnasium 3,500 








Equipment, shop 1, 000 

Equipment, cooking 2, 000 

Repairs 2, 000 

To make single unit of building 4, 000 




Total 


1,680 ! 30,000 


102, 631 


132, 631 




5,000 












1,680 ! 30,000 


102, 631 


137, 631 








3,760 | 57,000 


251,091 


318, 091 







(b) TRADITIONAL PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



WHITE SCHOOLS. 

New building for Baxter School 

320 pupils. 
8 classes. 
8 classrooms. 
4 special rooms. 

1 portable auditorium $3, 500 

1 portable gymnasium 3, 500 

An addition lor Oconee School 

480 pupils. 
12 classes. 
12 classrooms. 
4 special rooms. 

1 portable auditorium $3, 500 

1 portable gymnasium 3, 500 

Eight portables for Childs School 

480 pupils. 
12 classes. 

1 portable auditorium S3, 500 

1 portable gymnasium 3, 500 

ti classrooms 0, 000 

Equipment, shop 2,000 

Equipment, cooking 3, 000 

Repairs 5, 000 

Seven portables for College Avenue 

480 pupils. 
12 classes. 

1 portable gymnasium S3, 500 

6 portable classrooms 6, 000 

Equipment, shop 2, 000 

Equipment, cooking 2, 000 

Equipment, play 2, 000 

Repairs 2, 000 

Eig:it portables for Nantahala 

320 pupils. 
s classes. 

1 portable auditorium 13,500 

1 portable gymnasium . . '. 3, 500 

4 portable classrooms 4,000 

1 shop 2, 000 

1 cooking room 3, 000 

Repairs 2, 000 



Land. 



Total . 



Total for white schools 



480 



480 



320 



2,080 



2,080 



$10, 500 



10, 500 



5,000 



6, 000 



$105,900 



112,000 122,500 



18,000 



18,000 



32, 000 205,460 



32,000 J 265, W 



$116,460 



23,000 



17,500 



18,000 



297,460 
20,000 



317,460 



50 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

Plan 1 — Continued. 
(6) TRADITIONAL PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS— Continued. 



Buildings. 


Number 
of pupils 
accommo- 
dated. 


Cost of 
equipment. 


Cost of 
buildings. 


Total cost. 


NEGRO SCHOOLS. 

Two floors of new building for High and Industrial, 


1,200 
480 


137,000 
3,000 


$185,031 
23,000 


8222,631 


1,200 pupils. 

30 classes. 

16 classrooms. 

6 special rooms. 

1 portable auditorium $3, 500 




26,000 


480 pupils. 
12 classes. 
1 auditorium $3, 500 


1 gymnasium 3, 500 

10 classrooms 10, 000 




Equipment, shop 1,000 


' 


Repairs 2, 000 

To make single unit of building 4,000 




Total 


1,680 


40,000 


208,631 


248,631 


Land 


5,000 












1,680 


40,000 


208,631 


253, 631 




Grand total for white and Negro schools 


3,760 


72,000 


474,091 


571,091 



Plan 2 is given chiefly in order to illustrate the expense of patch- 
work methods and of maintaining a number of small plants. It is 
strongly vrged that it should not be adopted. 

NEGRO SCHOOLS PLAN 2 NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ADOPTION. 

1. An addition of portable buildings to the High and Industrial 
School. — The High and Industrial School and Newtown School should 
be consolidated and the children sent to the High and Industrial. 
A number of portable buildings could be erected and made into a 
single building and enough land bought to square the lot on which 
the High and Industrial School now stands. The number of classes 
to be provided for would be as follows : 

Enrollment: 

High and industrial — 

High school Ill 

Elementary 163 

Newtown 182 

Total 456 

Twenty per cent increase in 5 years 91 

Total (in 14 classes) 547 

This makes a school of 4 high-school classes and 11 elementary- 
classes. Under the work-study-play plan it would be necessary to 
have the following accommodations : One auditorium, 1 gymnasium, 
4 classrooms for the high school, and 6 for the elementary classes, 
or a total of 10; special rooms, 1 chemistry laboratory, 1 physics 
laboratory, 5 shops — woodworking, forge, painting and plastering, 
brick masonry (these already exist for evening school students, but 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHEISTS, GA. 



51 



they are scattered over the city in private shops), 1 cooking room 
for girls, a dressmaking room, 1 nurse training room, 1 mechanical 
drawing, and .1 music room. This makes 12 units, or a total of 22 
units needed. There are available 8 classrooms in the present build- 
ing and 2 rooms for cooking and sewing in an annex. The room 
now used in the basement of the present building for a workshop 
could be used as a storeroom and stockroom. 

The eight rooms in the present building can be used for classrooms, 
and for the present the cooking and sewing rooms can still be used 
for that purpose if additional equipment is provided. That leaves 
12 rooms to be provided. , This can be done by erecting modern 
portable buildings. These buildings can be secured in the form of 
an auditorium, gymnasium, classrooms, and special rooms, and all 
of them can be so set up as to form a single building with a corridor 
down the center, with a principal's office, store, heating plant, 
showers, and toilets. The cost would be as follows: 



One auditorium S3, 500 

One gymnasium 3. 500 

Two classrooms 2, 000 

Two science laboratories 4, 000 

Five shops: 

Woodworking 2. 000 

Forge 4, 000 

Machine shop 7, 000 

Painting and plastering 500 

Brick masonry 500 

Additional equipment for cooking 

and sewing 2, 000 

One mechanical drawing room. . . 2, 000 

One music room 2, 000 

One nurse training room 2, 000 



35, 000 



To make these units into a single 

building with heating plant $10, 000 

45, 000 
300 modern single seats and desks 
to replace the present double 
desks 3, 000 

48, 000 
Repairs. 3, 000 

51, 000 
Additional land 5, 000 



Total 56,000 



Under the traditional plan it would be necessary to have six addi- 
tional classrooms at a cost of $6,000, or a total of $57,000. 

2 . Portable buildings for the West Athens School. — The enrollment 
in the West Athens School in 1921 was 400, or 10 classes. Allowing 
for growth of 2 classes, it would be necessary to provide for 480 
pupils, or 12 classes. Under the work-study-play plan it would be 
necessary to have 6 classrooms, 4 special rooms, an auditorium, and 
a gymnasium. There are available in the present building 6 rooms. 
With this it will be necessary to erect 4 portable units, an auditorium, 
and gymnasium. The cost would be as follows : 



One auditorium $3, 500 

One gymnasium 3, 500 

One shop 2, 000 

One cooking room 3, 000 

One nature study room 1, 000 

One drawing room 1 , 000 

14, 000 



General repair... $2, 000 

To make a single building unit.. 4,000 



Land 



Total 20,000 

5,000 

Total 25,000 



52 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



Under the traditional plan six additional classrooms' would be 
needed at $6,000, making a total of $26,000. 

3. Portable buildings for East Athens School. — The plans for this 
school and the cost would be the same as under Plan 1 , $20 ; 000. 

The total cost of the building program for the Negro schools under 
plan 2 would be $101,000. 



SUMMARY OF COST OF A BUILDING PROGRAM ON THE BASIS OF THE 

$323,000 BOND ISSUE. 

Plan 2. 
(a) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



Buildings. 


Number 
of pupils 
accommo- 
dated. 


Cost of 

equipment. 


Cost of 

buildings. 


Total cost. 


WHITE SCHOOLS. 

Same as under plan 1 : 


2,080 


$27,000 


$148, 460 


St 75, 460 




5,000 














2,080 


27,000 


148, 460 


180, 460 






NEGRO SCHOOLS. 

14 portables for the High and Industrial and Newtown 


560 

480 

4S0 


15,000 

2 20,000 
20,000 


2 46,000 


51,000 


560 pupils. 
14 classes. 
1 portable for auditorium §3, 500 








5 portables for shops 14, 000 

1 portable nurse-training room 2, 000 




Additional equipment for cooking room . . 2, 000 
Cost of making these units jntosingle plant 

with heating plant 10, 000 

300 single seats and desks to replace double 

desks 3,000 




Repairs 3, 000 


20,000 


4X0 pupils. 
12 classes. 

1 portable auditorium 3, 500 

1 portable gymnasium 3, 500 

1 portable shop 2, 000 

1 portable cooking room 3, 000 

1 portable nature-study room 1.000 

1 portable drawing-room 1 , 000 

Cost of making these units into a single 






Repairs 2, 000 

portables for East Athens, same as under 


20,000 








Total .. 


1,520 


91,000 




91,000 






10,000 














1,520 


91,000 




101,000 






Total for buildings for white and Negro schools . . . 


3,600 


266, 400 




266, 460 
15,000 
















3,600 


266, 460 




281,460 







1 This is in addition to the equipment included in the cost of the portable buildings. 
s The cost of equipment for each room and activity is included in this building cost. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

Plan 2 — Continued . 
(/.) TRADITIONAL PLAN— CAPACITY AND COSTS. 



53 



Building. 


Number 
of pupils 

accommo- 
dated. 


Cost of 
equipment. 


Cost of 
buildings. 


Total cost. 


WHITE SCHOOLS. 

Same as under pia» 1 : 


2,0M) 


S32, 000 


$265, 466 


$296, 460 




20, 000 














2,080 


32, 000 


265, 466 


316,460 






NEGRO SCHOOLS. 

20 portables for Hicjh and Industrial and Newtown 
Schools 

(Same capacity as under work-study-play plan. 
but cost of 6 additional classrooms required under 

traditional plan.) 


560 
4S0 
'ISO 


5, 000 


52, 000 
26, 000 
26,000 


57, 000 
26,000 


(Same capacity as under work-study-play plan, 
but cose of 6 additional classrooms required under 
traditional plan.) 




26, 000 


(Same capacity and costs as under work-studv- 
play plan, but' cost of 6 additional classrooms 
required under traditional plan.) 






Total 


1,520 




109, 000 


109,000 






20, 000 














1,520 




109, 000 


129, 000 










3,600 




406, 46tj 


445, 460 









ATHENS BEHIND OTHER CITIES IN SCHOOL EXPENDITURES. 

The preceding building program shows what can be accomplished 
with the $323,000 bond issue available. But Athens should not be 
satisfied with this amount of money for her schools. It represents 
only a beginning of what she should spend in order to bring her 
school plant up to date. 

Athens probably does not realize that, as has already been pointed 
out, the city has the wealth to make her public school plant one of 
the most modern in the country. Furthermore, the average citizen 
probably does not know that up to the present time Athens has spent 
far less on her public schools than other cities of the same population 
group. And yet the following facts prove this to be the case: 

Athens is fortieth from the bottom of a list of 327 cities in its tax rate 
-for schools. — The tax rate for all school purposes for Athens for 
1917-18 was 5 mills. But this was on the basis of a 67 per cent prop- 
erty assessment. On the basis of a 100 per cent valuation of property 
the tax rate for Athens for that year was 3.35 mills. 19 (Sec Chart IV.) 

The following table and chart show that out of 327 cities with a 
population of 10,000 to 30,000, Athens stood fortieth from the bot- 
tom of the list in its tax rate for schools. Two hundred and eighty- 



54 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

Only 39 had a lower 



seven cities had a higher tax rate than Athens. 
rate. 19 

Alliens stands eleventh from the bottom of the list of 4-5 cities in its 
■per capita expenditure for schools. — Furthermore, when Athens is 
compared with other cities of the same population group, with 
respect to its per capita expenditure for current school expenses, it 
is found that its per capita expenditure for public schools for 1917-18 
was $32.46, whereas, the average for the 25 cities cited in the accom- 




Chart IV.— Athen stands 40th from the bottom in alist of 327 cities in its tax rate for schools. 

panying chart was $49.93. In other words, it stood eleventh from 
the bottom of the list of 45 cities. 20 (See Chart V.) 

Athens stands twenty-first from the bottom of the list of 340 cities in 
the amount of its school property.— -The value of the school property 
of the public schools of Athens tells the story of its poverty in school 
buildings and indicates with startling accuracy how far behind other 
cities Athens has fallen in its provisions for housing its children. 

* See Statistics of Public School Systems, H. R. Bouner, U. S. Bu. Educ. Bui. 1920, No. 24, p. 467. 
20 See Statistics of City School Systems, H. R. Bonner, U. S. Bu. Educ. Bui. 1920, No. 24, pp. 146, 428, 
and 321. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



55 



CITIES. 



AMOUNT SPENT PER PUPIL IN AVERAGE DAILY ATTENDANCE, 
$ 10 20 30 40 50 CO 70 80 GO 100 




Coiae , Idaho 

Brookllne, Mass 

Hackens&ek, N. J 

Great Falls, Mont...... 

Sioux Falls, S. Dak.... 

Y/llkinaburg, Pa... 

Cheyenne j Wyo... 

Colorado Springs, Colo. 
Bellingham, Wash....... 

Fargo, N. Dak.......... 

Madison, Wis....,, 

Concord, N. H... * 

Salem, Oreg.. 

Fresno, Calif.... 

Parker sburg, W. Va...,, 

Clinton, Iowa ». 

Albuquerque, N. Mex,.,. 

Newport, R. I 

Leavenworth,, K&ns...... 

Fhoenix, Ariz 

Burlington, Vt. •••....• 
Battle Creek, Mich.,.., 

Ithaca, N„ Y 

Ogden, Utah. 

Rock Island, 111 

Grand Island, Nebr..».. 

Lorain, Ohio..... 

Mankato, Minn..... 

Muskogee , Okla ......... 

Waco, Texas 

Norwalk, Conn.......... 

Elkhart, Ind. 

Jefferson C*ty, Mo 

Fort Smith, Ark. 

Auburn, Me. .... ....••.. 

ATHENS, GA 

Jackson, Miss.......... 

Petersburg, Va......,,. 

C olumbus , Ga . 

Paducah, Ky. ......... ». 

Wilmington, N, C 

Cumberland, Md 

Bessemer, Ala 

Shrevoport, La......... 

Spartanburg, S. C...... 

Jackson, Tenn 

AVERAGE 



49.93 



Chabt V.— Athens stands 11th from the bottom in a list, of 45 cities in its per capita expenditure for public 

schools. 



56 



SCHOOL, BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



The value of school property in Athens in 1917-18 was $123,000 
The number of pupils enrolled in that year was 2,945. Therefore, 
the value of school property per pupil was $42. Compared with 340 
other cities of the same population group, Athens stood twenty-first 
from the bottom of the list in the amount of its school property. 21 

In other words, these facts show that Athens is far behind other 
cities of the same population group with respect to the amount of 



6o 




H^HhH^ 



rf •5$ c6 o CI * 



VALUE 0? SCHOOL PROPERTY PER PUPIL ENROLLED, 1917-18. 



Chaut VI.— Athens stands 21st from the bottom in a list of 240 cities in the amount of its school property. 

money that it spends annually on its schools, and with respect to the 
amount of money that it has invested in its school plant. 

The usual answer to such facts is that the community has not 
sufficient wealth to finance its schools adequately. But this is not 
true of Athens. 

Athens has sufficient wealth to give the children of the city the hind of 
school plant they need. — In 1917-18 the taxable wealth of Athens was 
$10,000,000. This, however, was on 67 per cent valuation of prop- 
erty. The true value of the taxable wealth, on a 100 per cent valua- 



" Sec .statistics of City School Systems, H. R. Bonner, U. S. Bu. Educ. Bui. 1920, No. 24, pp. 467, 324, 
and 123. See about quoting individual cities, p. 467. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



57 



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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ill 



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58 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



tion, was $14,925,000. Compared with 23 other cities whose wealth 
is also estimated on a 100 per cent valuation, Athens stands highest 
in the amount of wealth behind the school dollar. 22 (See Table 3.) 
The following table shows that Athens spent $1 for school purposes 
for every $217 it possessed, whereas the average city in the group 
expended $1 on schools for every $120 of wealth it possessed. 

Table 3. — True wealth behind every school dollar in 24 cities. 1 



Cities. 



True value 

of taxable 

wealth. 



Athens, Oa 

Parsons, Kans 

Parkersburg, W. Va... 

Norwalk, Conn 

Gloversville, N. Y 

Albuquerque, N. Mex. 
Sioux Falls, S. Dak... 

Alpena, Mich 

Sheboygan, Wis 

Aberdeen, S. Dak 

Concord, N. H 

Ossining, N. Y 

Arlington, Mass 

Lawrence, Kans 

Keene, N. H 

Pontiac, Mich 

Nanticoke, Pa 

Traverse City, Mich. . . 

Carbondale, Pa 

McAlester, Okla 

Trinidad, Colo 

Muskegon, Mich 

Boise, Idaho 

Haekensack, N.J 



814, 
13, 
34, 
25, 

19, 
15, 
28, 
7, 
24, 
16, 
18, 
10, 
19, 
13, 

11, 

25, 
14, 
7, 
9, 
6, 
9, 
25, 

19, 
16, 



925,000 
310, 000 
869,000 
126,000 
S26. 000 
746,000 
368,000 
845, 000 
669,000 
222,000 
707,000 
711,000 
152, 000 
854,000 
000,000 
312,000 
454, 000 
756,000 
953,000 
142, 000 
416,000 
045, 000 
000,000 
038,000 



Twenty-three cities exclusive of Athens 392, 524, 000 



Expendi- 
tures for 
public 
schools. 



Number of 
dollars 
behind 
every 
dolla'r 
spent on 
schools. 



$68, 797 

69,544 
201, 797 
154,426 
125, 697 
106, 714 
200, 717 

57,847 
183,047 
122, 005 
143, 734 

85,600 
155, 869 
112, 793 

90,190 
212, 385 
128,908 

77, 013 
104,888 

66,288 
103, 709 
290,072 
2.50, 393 
214,660 



3, 258, 296 



$217 
191 
173 
163 
158 
147 
141 
136 
135 
133 
130 
125 
123 
123 
121 
U9 
112 
101 
95 
93 
91 
86 
76 
75 



Amount 
spent on 
schools 
per $1,000 
of true 
wealth. 



$4.61 
5. 22 
5.79 
6.15 
6.34 
G. 78 
7.07 
7.37 
7.42 
7.52 
7.68 
7.99 
8.14 
8.14 
8.20 
8.39 
8.92 
9.93 
10.54 
10.79 
11.01 
11.58 
13.18 
13.38 



120 



8.30 



i See Statistics of City School Systems, H. R. Bonner, U. S. Bu. Educ. Bui., 1920, No. 24. 

Furthermore, cities with one-half the wealth of Athens spent more 
upon their schools than Athens. For example, Traverse City, Mich., 
with a smaller population and one-half the wealth of Athens, spent 
more on its schools than Athens; i. e., $1 out of every $101 of wealth 
as compared with $217 in Athens. Traverse City's true wealth was 
$7,756,000, and she spent $77,013 on her schools; whereas the true 
wealth of Athens was $14,925,000, and she spent $68,797 on her 
schools. Haekensack, N. J., with about the same population and 
with slightly larger wealth than Athens spent about three times as 
much on its schools. Her taxable wealth was $16,038,000 and she 
spent $214,660 on her schools. 

Even if it were contended that property in Athens is assessed at 
100 per cent valuation, the city had $145 behind every dollar ex- 
pended for the schools, as compared with an average of $120 in cities 

22 See Statistics of City School Systems, H. R. Bonner, U. S. Bu. Educ. Bid., 1920, No. 24, pp. 427-439; 
pp. 467-477. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PEOGKAM FOE ATHENS, GA. 59 

where property is assessed at 100 per cent valuation. In fact, com- 
pared with these other 23 cities listed, where the property valuation 
is on a 100 per cent basis, it is found that only 5 cities out of the 23 
had more money behind the school dollar. 

Athens spent a smaller proportion of her wealth upon her schools in 
1920 than in 1917-18. — It might be thought that these figures for 
1917-18 do not represent conditions at the present time, and that in 
1920 Athens was spending a greater proportion of her wealth upon 
her schools. On the contrary in 1920 Athens spent a smaller pro- 
portion of her wealth upon her schools than in 1917-18. For 
example, in 1920 the taxable wealth of Athens, on a 100 per cent 
property valuation, was $22,500,000. 23 This does not include the 
territory annexed to the city in 1921. The expenditures for public 
schools for that year were $90, 500. 2i This means that in 1920 the 
number of dollars behind every school dollar had increased from $217 
in 1917-18 to $248. 

Even on the basis of the existing 60 per cent valuation of property 
the taxable wealth of Athens in 1920 was $13,500,000. The expendi- 
tures for schools were $90,500. Therefore, the number of dollars 
behind the school dollar, even on a 60 per cent valuation of property, 
was $167 as compared with $145 in 1917-18. 

For every $1 ,000 of true wealth Athens spent about one-half as much 
on her schools as the average city in a list of 23 cities of the same popula- 
tion group. — The following chart shows that not only did Athens 
have more wealth behind the school dollar than any other city in the 
group, but also that she spent for every $1,000 of true wealth less 
money on her schools than any other city in the group. In 1917-18, 
for every $1,000 of true wealth, the average amount expended for 
public schools by 23 cities of the same population group as Athens 
was $8.30, whereas Athens expended only $4.61 for every $1,000 of 
true wealth in the community. 25 Even on the basis of 67 per cent 
assessed valuation of property, Athens spent only $6.87 out of every 
$1,000, or about three-fourths of the average of cities taxed on a 100 
per cent valuation. 

From 1917-18 to 1920 Athens actually decreased the amount per 
$1,000 which she spent on schools. 

Although the true wealth of Athens has increased by $7,575,000 
since 1917-18, yet Athens in 1920 spent less money on her schools in 
proportion to her true taxable wealth than she did in 1917-18; i. e., 
$4.02 for every $1,000 in 1920, as contrasted with $4.61 in 1917-18 
for every $1,000 of true wealth. 

» See Appendix V, Taxable wealth of Athens, Ga., 1920. 

s< See Appendix VI, Expenditures for all city departments, Athens, Ga., 1920. 

26 See Chart VII. True Wealth Behind Every School Dollar. 



60 SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 

SUMMARY. 

Athens was the pioneer in bringing higher education to the youth 
of Georgia. Will it lead in reconstructing its public school plant so 
as to bring modern educational advantages to the children of the 
public schools? 

This question states the real significance of a school-building 
program for Athens at the present time. 

Up to the present time Athens has spent far less on her public schools 
than other cities of the same size. 

Athens is fortieth from the bottom of a list of 327 cities of the 
same population group in its tax rate for schools. 

Athens stands tenth from the bottom of a list of 25 cities of the 
same population group in its per capita expenditure for schools. 

Athens stands twenty-first from the bottom of a list of 340 cities 
of the same population group in the amount of its school property. 

Athens' school plant is in deplorable condition. 

Athens is to be congratulated upon the fine, progressive spirit of its 
superintendent, board of education, and teaching force. They are 
doing their best to give progressive education to the children, but 
they are trying to do it in the face of almost insuperable obstacles 
in the way of inadequate buildings and equipment. 

There has been no new elementary school building for 12 years. 

The schools are so badly congested that there are 439 more children 
than there are school seats. 

With the exception of two poorly equipped cooking rooms, there 
are practically no modern facilities in the elementary schools. There 
is not a single auditorium or gymnasium. There are no shops, no 
science laboratories, no drawing rooms, no music rooms, no libraries. 
There are only two principals' offices in all the eight elementary 
schools, and no teachers' rest rooms. In nearly every school the 
playground space and equipment are entirely insufficient. 

A building program costing $318,091 is recommended as the minimum 
required to meet the most pressing needs of the public schools at the 
present time. 

It is further recommended that in order to give not only adequate 
classroom accommodations to the children, but also a flexible program 
of work, study, and play in shops, science rooms, drawing rooms, 
music rooms, auditoriums, and playgrounds, the schools be organized 
on the work-study-play or balanced load type of organization. Under 
this plan it will be possible to give these modern facilities to children 
for $318,091, whereas under the traditional plan it would cost $570,091. 

This expenditure of $318,091 is, however, only a beginning of what 
the city ought to do in order to develop a modern school plant. 

As a matter of fact, if Athens is to relieve existing congestion, 
provide for the growth of at least 10 years, and consolidate her 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 61 

present small plants into a few modern up-to-date school buildings 
with adequate playgrounds, a building -program costing $1,710,1.20 
should be carried out. 

Athens lias sufficient wealth to carry out such a program if it is 
extended over a number of years. 

Athens' taxable wealth at present is given at $14,900,000. But 
at the present time her property is assessed at 60 per cent valuation. 
If it were assessed at 100 per cent valuation, her true taxable wealth 
would be $24,833,333. Therefore, the amount of money available 
for bonds at 7 per cent of the taxable wealth would be $1,738,333. 
Deducting the $720,000 for outstanding bonds, there would be left 
$1,018,333 available for school bonds, if property were assessed at 
100 per cent valuation. 

Compared with 23 other cities of the same size, Athens stands 
highest in the amount of wealth behind the school dollar. Yet for 
every $1,000 of school wealth Athens spent about one-half as much 
on her public schools as the average city in a list of 23 cities of the 
same size. 

Furthermore, although the true wealth of Athens increased by 
$7,575,000 since 1918, yet Athens in 1920 spent less money on her 
schools in proportion to her taxable wealth than she did in 1917-18. 

Athens needs to enter upon a statesmanlike policy of reconstructing 
her whole school plant. 

She has the wealth to carry out such policy. Furthermore, the 
city has such a real and vital interest in education that there is no 
question but that, if once the facts regarding the public schools are 
realized, the people of the city will see to it that their children receive 
the modern educational advantages which the children of other cities 
are receiving. 

The bond issue for $318,091 is not merely to give buildings to 
children. It is to give children the chance to grow in health and 
strength and mental alertness. It is to give them the chance to live. 



APPENDIX I. 

THE WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN IN SOME CITIES. 

[From a Report of the Commerce Club of Toledo, Ohio.] 





Esti- 
mated 
popula- 
tion in 

1918. 


Number of 


Attitude 




City and State. 


schools oper- 
ating under 


of super- 
intendent 


Special remarks. 




plan. 


to plan. 




Winnetka, 111 — 


5, 000 


All, on modified 
form. 


Favorable. 


Effects saving in capital investment, enriches 
school program, and makes possible the 
employment of competent, trained de- 
partmental teachers. 


Detroit, Mich 


850, 000 


16 this year, 50 
next year, 
modified 
form. 


...do 


Adjusts plans to facilities of particular 
buildings; teachers enthusiastic about 
plan; increases seating capacity of building 
from 16 to 40 per cent. 


Kalamazoo, Mich. 


50,000 


All, on modified 
form. 


...do 


Used in third to sixth grades, inclusive, 
junior and senior high schools, all on de- 
partmentalized plan. 


Newark, N. J 


450, 000 


9 


...do 


Has decided advantages over traditional 
plan which more than offset disadvan- 
tages. Teachers having had 1 year of suc- 
cessful experience in these schools receive 
a bonus of 5 per cent. 


New Brunswick, 


38, 000 


1, in modified 


...do 


Accommodates 16 sections of pupils to space 


N.J. 




form, platoon 
plan. 




usually assigned to 13 groups, or increases 
capacity 23 per cent. 


Passaic, N. f .. . 


70,000 


2 


...do 


Average per capita annual cost reduced to 








5-hour basis for all schools is $42.51 for 










traditional schools as compared with $32.73 










for work-study-play plan schools. 


Troy, X. Y 


80, 000 


1, in modified 
form. 


...do 


Satisfied with plan; children get greater ad- 
vantages than with old type of school. 


New Castle, Pa. . 


36,000 


4 


...do 


Considered a marked improvement over 








traditional plan; success depends upon the 










securing of teachers properly trained to do 










the special teaelhng which this type of 










school demands. 


Pittsburgh, Pa. . . 


504, 000 
6,000 


6 


...do 


Will extend the use of the plan. 


Sewickley, Pa — 


AIL for 8 years... 


...do 


Has decided advantages over traditional 

plan. 
Very complete school equipment and pro- 


Swarlhmore, Pa.. 


3,000 


All, for 8 years; 


...do 






modified form. 




gram; per pupil cost $97. 8i . 



63 



APPENDIX II. 



SCHEDULE SHOWING CAPACITY OF COMPLETE SCHOOL, PER CLASS 
PERIOD, FOR SCHOOL OF 2,000 PUPILS. 



Academic work, 25 classes at 40 pupils each. 
Grades 1-4— 
Reading. 
Writing. 
Spelling. 
Mathematics. 
Music. 



Grades 4-9 — 
Geography. 
History. 

English, including foreign language. 
Civics. 
Mathematics. 



1, 000 



Special work, classes at 20 to 40 each 

2 in elementary science (primary and intermediate) at 40 80 

2 in drawing and handwork (1 primary, 1 upper and intermediate) at 40 SO 

2 in home economics (upper and intermediate) at 20-40 1 

1 in arts and crafts (upper and intermediate) at 40 / 

2 in shop for boys (upper and intermediate) at 20-40 \ 

1 in mecbanicaldrawing (upper and intermediate) at 40 / 

2 in generalscience (upper and intermediate) at 40 80 

lin music ^ 

1 in expression/ third floor ( u "P er and intermediate) SO 



Gymnasiums, 2 classes at 80 each 160 

Playgrounds , 2 classes at 40 each 80 

Auditorium , 7 classes 280 



4S0 



.520 



RECAPITULATION. 

Pupilsin classrooms 1, 000 

In specia 1 work 480 

In gymnasiums 160 

In playgrounds 80 

In auditorium 280 



DUPLICATE SCHOOL PROGRAM, TYPE A. 



Key to classes. 


Rooms. 


Names of teachers. 


Eight 60-minute class periods. 


Class 
No. 


Class 
Gr. 


I 


II 


III 


IV 


V 


VI 


VII 


VIII 


1 


IB 
IB 
1A 
1A 
2B 
2B 
2A 
2A 
3B 
3B 
3A 
3A 
4B 
4B 
4 A 
4 A 
5 A 5B 
5A 5B 
6B 
6A 
7B 
7A 
8B 
8A 


101 
102 
102 
103 
104 
105 
105 
106 
107 
108 
108 
109 
110 
111 
111 
112 
113 
114 
Audito- 
rium 

Gym. 
play- 
ground 


Smith 




1 

4 

8 
9 
12 

16 

17 
20 

24 
11 
23 

21 

22 

10,14 

13, 15 

2,6 

3,7 

5,18 

19 


2 

6 
7 
10 

14 
15 

18 

22 

23 

5 

20 
24 

19 

9,12 

11,16 

1,8 

3,13 

4,17 
21 


1 
3 
5 

9 
11 
13 

17 
21 
19 

7 

15 
23 


2 

4 

8 
10 
12 

16 
18 
24 

20 
6 
14 

22 


3 
6 

7 

11 
14 
15 

22 
23 
21 

2 
9 
16 

24 

17,19 

IS, 20 

1,8 

4, 10 

5,12 

13 


1 

4 
5 

9 
12 

13 

17 
19 
20 

3 

8 
10 

18 

21,23 

22,24 

2,11 

6,14 

7,15 

16 


2 


2 




3 
5 

7 




3 




6 


4 




8 


5 




10 


6 




11 
13 
15 




7 




14 


s 




16 


9 




18 


10 




23 
21 
19 




11 




24 


12 




22 


13 




4 


14 
15 
16 
17 


Science— Gear 

Drawing— Glen. . . 
Hall— Dorr 

Shop— Dale 

/Hall— Dorr 


1 

12 
17 

} 20 

2,6 

4,8 

9,16 

10,18 

14,22 

24 


13 
19 

21 


IS 
19 






1,5 


20 






3,7 


21 








9,15 


22 


1 Phillips 






11,17 


23 


)Shafer 






12,20 


24 


(Gale .. 






23 













1 The four types of programs and the explanations here given are reproduced from a leaflet published 
by William Wirt, superintendent of schools, Gary, Ind., 1918. 

G4 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



65 



The school classes are numbered from 1 to 24, as given under "Key to classes." 
The 12 odd-numbered classes are in a group alternating with the 12 even-numbered 
classes in the use of classrooms and special facilities. No. 1 alternates with No. 2, etc. 

Since each group of classes contains approximately all school grades, they are 
duplicate groups of classes. This is the reason for using the name "Duplicate school." 

If all children in a family enter odd-numbered classes, they will have the same 
luncheon hour at Period V. If they enter even-numbered classes, they will have 
luncheon at Period IV. 

The academic teachers use classrooms 101 to 109. Four academic teachers use three 
rooms and accommodate eight classes three periods each. Each academic teacher 
teaches six periods divided equally between two classes. If it is desired to depart^ 
mentalize the academic work, each teacher in any group of three can be given three 
classes two periods each or six classes one period each, as shown for teachers Metz, 
Glover, and Gorry. 

Teachers Smith and Ames have all of their work in rooms 101 and 103, respectively. 
Teacher Jones has two class periods in room 101 and four class periods in room 102. 
Teacher Harter has two class periods in room 103 and four class periods in room 102. 

Hall and Dorr alternate in auditorium and classroom in music and expression. 
Gale takes children from play periods for the preparation of auditorium programs. 

Pupils may be excused from play periods for library, private music lessons, week- 
day church school, home work, etc. 

DUPLICATE SCHOOL PROGRAM, TYPE B. 



Key to classes. 


Rooms. 


Teachers. 


I 


II 


3 even 6 
III 

2 
4 
6 

8 

12 
11 
16 
18 
20 
22 

26 

25 

1 

15 

17 

19 

23 
21 
9,13 
10,14 
3,24 
5,27 
7,28 


3-minute class periods 






Class 
No. 


Class 
Gr. 


IV 




V 


VI 


VII 


1 


IB 
IB 
IB 
1A 
1A 
2B 
2B 
2A 
2A 
3B 
3B 
3A 
3A 
4B 
4B 
4A 
4A 
5B 
5B 
5A 
5A 
6B 
6B 
6A 
7B 
7A 
8B 
8A 


101 
102 
103 
104 
105 
106 


Smith 


1 

3 


1 

5 
7 

10 
12 
9 
15 

21 
23 
24 
26 

; 17 
3 

19 
20 

27 

28 

22 

2,6 

4,8 

11,16 

13,18 

14,25 


2 
4 
6 

- - 8 
10 




1 
3 
5 
7 
10 
12 


2 
3 
5 

13 

14 
11 
16 
19 
21 

27 
28 
25 

6 

8 

22 

18. 

26 
7 
17,23 
20,24 
1,10 
4,12 
0, 15 




2 




4 


3 




6 


4 




7 

13 
14 

9 
15 
19 


8 


5 
6 


Jacobs 

Snyder 

Brooks 

Aherne 


13 
14 


7 


11 
16 
18 
20 
22 
24 




9 


8 

9 

10 


107 
108 
109 
110 
111 
112 




15 
19 
21 
23 
24 
26 


18 
20 


11 
12 
13 


Glover 

Gorry 

Pearcy 

Flynn 

Studio— Fox 

Science— Cear , 

Shop— Dale 

Shop — Book 

Shop — Gore 

Shop — Dorr 

Science— Hall 


23 

27 
28 
17 
5 
10 
21 

26 


22 
27 

28 


14 


25 
13 
14 




17 


15 
16 
17 


113 
114 
115 
116 
117 
118 
119 
120 




2 
4 
17 

18 

20 


11 
12 
16 


18 
19 
20 
21 
22 


21 

28 

27 

15 

1,5 

3,7 

9,19 

12,23 

17,26 




23 
24 


23 




9 

22,27 
25, 28 
6,13 
8,14 
11,16 


25 


24 
25 
26 
27 
28 


Audito- 
rium 
Gym. 
play- 
ground 


>2 \ teachers 

>3£ teachers 


in, 16 

\12, 18 
1 2,8 
{ 4,20 
t 6,22 


15,21 

19,26 

1,7 

2,3 

5,10 



All children go home for luncheon at the same hour in programs B and C. 

Teachers Brooks and Flynn have each of their six class periods in a different room. 
This excessive traveling can, in part, be divided with the other teachers, but not so 
successfully as in program A. The upper classes may have their work department- 
alized as shown in program A. 



66 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 



Since the auditorium and gymnasiums are in use seven hours in place of six, as in 
program A, relatively fewer classes are accommodated at any hour in these facilities. 
The relative amount of space for gymnasiums and auditorium is decreased and a 
proportionate amount of space is added to classrooms and special facilities. 

In all duplicate school programs the increase in capacity depends upon the relative 
amount of gymnasium, auditorium, and special classroom space that is used simul- 
taneously with the regular classrooms, and the total and relative amount of time that 
each of these school facilities is in use. 

DUPLICATE SCHOOL PROGRAM, TYPE C. 



Key to 




classes. 






Rooms. 






Class 


Class 




No. 


Gr. 




1 


IB 


101 


2 


IB 


102 


3 


1A 


103 


4 


1A 


104 


5 


2B 


105 


6 


2B 


106 


7 


2A 


107 


8 


2A 


108 


9 


3B 


109 


10 


3B 


110 


11 


3A 


111 


12 


3A 


112 


13 


4B 


113 


14 


4B 


114 


15 


4A 


115 


16 


4A 


116 


17 


5A 5B 


117 


18 


5A 5B 


118 


19 


6B 


119 


20 


6A 


Gym. 


21 


7B 


play- 


22 


7A 


ground . . 


23 


8B 




24 


8A 





Teachers. 



Smith 

Jones 

Harter 

Ames 

Jacobs 

Snyder 

Brooks 

Aherne.. 

Mosher 

Metz 

Glover 

Gorrey 

Studio — Glenn 

Shop— Fox 

Science — Cear 

Studio — Dale 

Shop— Book 

Shop— Gore 

Science — Hall 

Bmns 

Phillips 

Shafer 



Eight 45-miniite class periods with 60-minuto noon recess. 



00 9.45 10.30 11.15 1.00 1.4.5 2.30 3.15 



1 
3 
5 
7 
9 
11 
13 
15 
17 
19 
21 
23 
2 
4 
6 
14 

16 

18 
8,20 
10.22 
12,24 



2 

4 

6 

8 

10 

12 

14 

16 

18 

20 

22 

24 

7 

9 

11 

19 

21 

23 
1,13 
3,15 
5,17 



17 
7,19 
9,21 
11,23 



1 

3 

5 

7 

9 

11 

13 

15 

17 

19 

21 

23 

10 

12 

8 

22 

24 

20 
2,14 
4,16 
6,18 



14 
8,20 
10,22 
12,24 



2 
4 
6 
8 
10 
12 
14 
16 
18 
20 
22 
24 
9 
11 
7 
21 

23 

19 
1,13 
3,15 
5,17 



13 
7,19 
9,21 
11,23 



The auditorium is omitted, but, of course, can be substituted for part of the special 
work. If the school has an auditorium and does not care to use it for regular auditorium 
exercises, it might be used as a music studio. 

A 5-hour day for teachers and students can be arranged by shortening the after- 
noon periods. The special work in the morning may then be divided into six 30- 
minute periods, if uniform periods are desired. 

In all duplicate programs additional academic work can be substituted for part of 
the physical training and special work. Some other type of work can be substituted 
for "Application." The auditorium may be omitted in any program by substituting 
additional academic or special workroom units. The day may be shortened by reduc- 
ing the length of periods or changing the number of periods. Primary children may 
be given more play than upper grades. Academic or special work for two continuous 
periods may be broken up by changing classes every hour. This will also give 
academic work during Period II to the classes that would otherwise not get academic 
work until Period III. 

Pupils may be given longer hours than teachers without employing extra teachers 
because a less number of teachers than classes are in the auditorium and playgrounds. 

The writer has worked with more than 50 different types of duplicate school pro- 
grams. Almost any kind of school can be secured by changing the length, number, or 
grouping of the periods, the type and the sequence of work, and the school hours for 
pupils or teachers. 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GA. 67 

DUPLICATE SCHOOL PROGRAM, TYPE D. 



Key to 

classes. 


Rooms. 


Teachers. 




Ten 


45-minute class periods wi 


;h a noon recess. 




Class 
No. 


Class 
Gr. 


I 


II 


III 


IV 


V 


VI 


VTI 


vni 


IX 


X 


1 
2 
3 
4 
5 


IB 
IB 
1A 
1A 
2B 
2B 
2A 
2A 
3B 
3B 
3A 
3A 
4B 
4B 
4A 
4A 
5A5B 
5A5B 
6B 
6A 
7B 
7A 
8B 
8A 


101 
102 
103 
104 


Smith 

Jones 

Harter 

Ames 


1 

3 
5 

7 


1 
3 

5 

7 
9 
11 
13 

15 

7 

9 

21 

23 
14 
16 
18 
2,4 
6,8 
10 
12 
20 
22 

24 


2 

6 

7 
4 
10 

14 
6 
12 

18 

22 

24 

20 

8 

9 

11 

1,3 

19,21 

23 

5 

13 

15 

17 


4 
6 
8 
2 

12 
14 
16 
10 

20 

22 

23 

18 

19 

21 

24 

1,3 

5,9 

11 

7 

13 

15 

17 


2 
4 
6 

8 

10 
12 

14 
15 

18 ; 
20 
22 
24 


1 
3 

7 

5 

9 

112 

16 
3 
17 
19 

23 
21 


1 

5 
7 
3 
9 

13 
15 
11 
17 

21 

24 

19 

20 

22 

23 

2,4 

6,10 

12 

8 

14 

16 

18 


3 
5 
8 
1 

11 
13 
15 
9 

19 
21 
23 
17 

7 
10 
12 
2,4 
20,22 
24 

6 
14 
16 

18 


2 
4 
6 

8 
10 
12 
14 

16 
18 
20 
22 

24 

13 

15 

17 

1,3 

5,7 

9 

11 

19 

21 

23 


2 
4 

8 
6 


6 
7 
8 
9 
10 


105 
106 
107 
108 


Snyder 

Aherne 

Mosher 


9 
11 
13 

15 


10 
12 

16 
14 


11 

12 
13 

14 
15 


109 
110 
111 
112 


Glover 

Gorry 

Pearcy 

Flynn 

Coot 


17 
19 
21 

23 


18 
20 

24 

22 


16 


Audito- 
rium. 
Gym. 
and play- 
grounds . 
113 
114 
115 
116 
117 




I- J 

2,12 
14, 16 
18 
10 
20 
22 


1 


17 


\Book 

[Johnson 

■JBruns 

(Phillips 

Studio — Fox 

Studio— Oar. 
Science — Door 

Shop— Hall.. 

Shop— Gale.. 






3 


18 
19 






5 
7,11 


20 






13,15 


21 






17 


22 






9 


23 






19 


24 






21 








23 











Teachers Jacobs, Metz, and Cook should teach drawing, music, or some special 
Bubject that can be taught in regular classrooms. If desired, the continuous academic 
periods may be broken up as shown for teacher Flynn with classes Nos. 23 and 24. 

The following table gives comparative data concerning the four program types. 



Program 
types. 


Hours in use. 


Hours classwork. 


Teachers 
per class. 


Room 

units per 

class. 


Class- 
rooms. 


Gyms. 


Aud. 


Special 
rooms. 


Teachers. 


Pupils. 


A 


8 
7 
6 


6 
7 
6 
6 


6 
7 
6 
6 


0,8 
7 
6 
6 


6 
6 
6 
6 


7 
7 
6 
6* 


1.00 

1.03 
.91 
1.04 


0.583 
.714 
.791 

.708 


B 


C 


D 





"Room units per class" does not include auditorium and gymnasium space. 



APPENDIX III. 
DESCRIPTION OF TYPE BUILDING OF WHICH A DIAGRAM IS SUBMITTED. 



THE CLASSROOMS. 

The interior arrangement of the building calls first of all for classrooms sufficient in 
number to house 50 per cent of the pupils at any one time. 

Usually the subjects of reading, writing, arithmetic, English, and spelling are taught 
in these classrooms, and normally at least half of the children's school day is devoted 
to these subjects. If the school day is six hours in length, about three hours daily 
will be spent in classrooms. Of course the length of the day can vary as much as is 
desirable. The above merely states what the usual arrangement and balance is, 
where the plan is used successfully. 

Geography, history, and civics are sometimes classified as regular classroom subjects, 
but generally in the complete schools these are considered special or laboratory sub- 
jects. Although only half the children's time is spent in the classrooms, the other 
subjects supplement in various ways the drill subjects in the classrooms; so in reality 
children may spend more than half the time in the fundamental subjects. Comparing 
this time with the time in the traditional school, we find that no time is taken from 
the fundamental subjects by changing the type of organization and plan of operation 
from a traditional one to one which gives adequate recognition to all vital considera- 
tions in education, viz, health, the fundamental operations, manual skill, wholesome 
recreation, and ethical character. 

On the other hand, if school authorities wish to classify as classroom subjects 
geography and history, as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic, it is possible to so 
classify them in the complete work-study-play school, and give the same amount of 
time to them— 210 minutes -as in the traditional school. 

GYMNASIUMS. 

Two gymnasiums are provided for in the plan, one for girls and one for boys. These 
include dressing and shower rooms, as well as offices for the instructors, physician, 
and nurse, and space for clinics. Located at the rear of the building, they open 
directly to the playground. A roof playground could be added, to be used for play 
classes during the inclement weather as well as for open-air classes. A total of from 6 
to 8 classes could be handled during each period by the gymnasium and playgrounds 
without congestion. 

SHOPS. 

The workshops for boys include woodwork, staining and finishing, mechanical 
drawing, and may include printing, metal work, or other shop activities. The activi- 
ties for girls include home economics and the arts and crafts, although, of course, girls 
as well as boys may elect to do the work in mechanical drawing, printing, metal work, 
and other shop activities. Four classes (160 pupils) can be accommodated in these 
prevocational quarters. This approximates about 80 students in the shops and 80 in 
the home economics quarters. 

AUDITORIUM. 

An auditorium with a seating capacity of 800 could be provided, but it is scarcely 
possible to get that number of children in one school into a homogeneous group. Seven 

1 See pp. 26-27. 
68 



SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOE ATHENS, GA. 69 

or eight classes for each period would be a normal group for a 50-class school. Then, 
if the auditorium day is six periods, all the classes will enjoy the advantages of the 
auditorium activities in the course of the day. Undoubtedly the auditorium activi- 
ties have passed the experimental stage. It is obvious that chorus singing, visual 
instruction, appreciation lessons in music, art, and achievement can not be developed 
as well in classrooms as in the auditorium, because auditorium equipment is best 
suited to that type of instruction. Furthermore, the auditorium is the best place for 
definite instruction on such topics as thrift, citizenship, community, and current 
topics of all kinds. 

Auditoriums will serve community uses, of course, and it is for this purpose, as well 
as those enumerated above, that they are usually included in a complete school. 
Many school people make the mistake of planning auditoriums that are overlarge. 
Medium-sized auditoriums are better for daily use, and it is only on rare occasions 
that an auditorium large enough to accommodate the whole school is needed. The 
smaller assembly room is more practical for daily school uses, but where several schools 
are being planned at the same time it is advisable to plan the largest auditorium in 
the one school that is the most central. 

LABORATORIES. 

Four laboratories are included, two for the younger children and two for the older. 
Two of these have greenhouses and can be specialized for nature study and horticul- 
ture. Nature study is science taught by observation and by contact with natural 
and living phenomena. Every normal child is a natural scientist, curious to know all 
about the natural phenomena about him. Only a small per cent of our children have 
opportunities for plant culture and animal nurture at their homes. The school must 
provide these life experiences in most cases. Gardening is usually considered a part 
of this elementary science, and it is a good plan for the greenhouses to open out on 
the gardens. These rooms may also be used for handwork rooms for the younger 
pupils, since much of their handwork will or should be a direct outgrowth of the nature 
study. 

General science is a term applied to more advanced and specific instruction than 
that just mentioned above; for example, botany, zoology, chemistry, and physics in 
elementary schools. The aim in all this science instruction is really to develop 
a usable fund of knowledge about common things. 



APPENDIX IV. 

ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ATHENS, GA., 1913-14 TO 1919-20, 

INCLUSIVE. 



Name of school. 


1913-14. 


1914-15. 


1915-16. 


1916-17. 


1917-18. 


1918-19. 


1919-20. 


Jan. 31, 
1921. 


ELEMENTARY. 

White: 


292 

278 
497 
221 
181 


341 

299 
541 
229 

220 


307 
372 
486 
228 
166 


297 
405 
513 
255 
166 


282 
398 
419 
259 

183 


272 
348 
408 
259 
196 


305 
410 
429 
250 
222 


294 


Childs Street 


421 




434 




240 




190 








1,469 


1, 630 


1,559 


1,636 


1,541 


1,483 


1,616 


1,579 






Negro: 


362 
221 
209 
338 


366 
246 
211 
366 


384 
277 
220 
337 


416 
276 
203 
343 


348 
257 
182 
288 


298 
262 
129 
180 


429 
291 
182 
163 


399 




400 




173 




163 








1,130 


1, 189 


1,218 


1, 238 


1,075 


869 


1,045 


1,135 






Total white and Negro elementary... 


2,599 


2, 819 


2,777 


2,874 


2,616 


2,352 


2,661 


2,714 


HIGH SCHOOLS. 


254 
50 


264 
47 


308 
59 


288 
76 


312 
99 


316 
9S 


345 
111 


391 




115 








2,903 


3,130 


3,144 


3,238 


3,027 


2,760 


3, 117 


3,220 







APPENDIX V. 

TAXABLE WEALTH OF ATHENS, GA., 1920. 

Real property $8,536,125 

Personal property 4, 963, 875 

Total 13,500,000 

If property were assessed at 100 per cent valuation instead of 60 per cent, 
the taxable wealth would be 22, 500, 000 



APPENDIX VI. 

EXPENDITURES FOR ALL CITY DEPARTMENTS, ATHENS, GA., 1920. 



City departments. Expenditures, 1920. 

Aldermen $2, 400. 00 

Advertising 1, 784. 18 

Assessors 1, 225. 00 

Bond commission 12, 141. 00 

Damages 125. 00 

Charity .' 2, 982. 64 

City hall 3, 773. 22 

Fire department 30, 415. 02 

Health department 28, 455. 29 

Insurance 750. 69 

Street lights 13, 196. 84 

Miscellaneous 314. 02 

70 



City departments. Expenditures, 1920. 

Police department 835, 382. 75 

Printing 656. 99 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 90, 500. 00 

Stockade 2, 068. 76 

City hall offices 15, 788. 54 

Streets 27, 589. 71 

Sewers 1, 353. 57 

Stock feed 6,381.10 

Water works 51, 883. 43 



Total 329, 167. 75 



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